Monkey bars

Vacillation in the non-
sense
of getting out of your
own damn head-skull,
not all oohs and aahs.

Fidgets and itches, twitches
pangs signal the need to flee
for your Life

But trapped-
as we are
to-gether-against
the wall closing doors
pushing on the pain-
body, as a name does
Nothing

to rectify, identify,
but objectifies, justifies,
the lies and immersion
in madness, a persistence
in
Obstinance

won't let go, cannot make
either one
unknow the chosen
words.

Painting by Evelyn De Morgan, 'The Gilded Cage' c. 1919 [Public domain].

which explains the silence...

The monkey and the muse
were in the
den
together
waiting for one
to speak-

The muse sat,
arms crossed
across the locked up chest
and the monkey just
gesticulates
in wild attempts
to aggravate
a predicted response-

whereby
two arms finally fell like pillars
allowing a plumage of smile to seep out
of the rubble-

You don't need a hand-
were the only words
I heard
eavesdropping
I struggled
to recognize the voice.

While trying to listen in
I lost sight of where I stood
momentarily,
and then the den was silent
while the world
was deafening,

when I could not
help
but find focus
there seemed only one-

source of the sound,
and only
one shadow
emerged.


Painting by Janis Rozentals, 'The Princess and the monkey' c. 1913 in the Latvian National Museum of Art [Public domain].