Monkey Business
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Quote taken from Monkeys - Barbados Pocket Guide: This unwanted interaction between man and monkey has been quite problematic on the island of Barbados as crops are consistently damaged as a result of the intervention of monkeys. As early as the 17th century, a monetary reward was temporarily enforced on green monkeys. In 1975, the population grew rapidly and as a result they were seen as menaces to society as they destroyed crops across the island in search of food. A $5 bounty was reinstituted for every tail that was brought into the Ministry of Agriculture. In an effort to safeguard the monkey, the Primate center offered $25 for every monkey that was captured alive and unharmed.
10th in Your Choice X Contest (Sponsor: Brian Strand)
Judged: April 30th, 2025
marauding foxes
mutilating fruit
minutemen mischief-makers
marching upon us
pick our pockets
laugh at our loss
“No mangoes for sale”
maimed, mangled, mashed
sweetness shamed
to death
ants and gnats feasting
off illicit mango chutney
sly scamps
evade
like Bolt-pace
their intake
of fruit sugars
insufficient for catching
robust diabetes
enfeebling the fiends
abducting limbs, or a pedactyl
soulful eyes stare with jeers
sailing
mimicking
bold breezes
through the trees
as I could never
in the canopy of my Caribbean youth
under mother's God-eye
girls outclimbed me
wearing puffy petticoats
and cumbersome cornrows
to perpetrate petite thefts
of mangoes
Copyright © Trina Layne | Year Posted 2025
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