The Mandrill
I feel sadness for the mandrill held captive
Behind the cage bars. His listless demeanour
Is unnatural when compared to his free aboriginal cousin
In the African jungle an ocean away.
Despite his gaiety of colour display
And distant stare through amber, hollow eyes,
With laboured mouth ajar for teeth to bare,
He expresses neither aggression nor submission
Of territory dominance or subordination.
There is no bobbing of the head or crowing,
Nor slapping of the ground or rump showing.
These primates are the world’s largest monkeys,
Safe from leopards preying and human hunting;
They, his keepers say, are lucky to be in a cage,
Enjoying life’s comforts to a ripe old age.
Music dissolved all enmity,
Annulled natural chemistry,
All regardless of consortia,
Came to hear the jungle orchestra.
Maestro King Lion got all in tune,
Baboon was superb on the bassoon,
Four parrots made a splendid quartet,
Chimpanzee dazzling on clarinet.
Tiger gifted on piano keys,
Ivory’s ring in the warm night breeze,
Hyena on flute, as good as it comes,
Monkey kept rhythm on bongo drums.
Bonobos’ violins euphony,
Playing strings so beautifully,
Bush Baby played harp con amore,
Mandrill on bass like never before.
Leopard was genius on the trumpet,
Sounding superb and jubilant,
Hippo virtuosic on oboe,
Gorilla’s trombone magnifico.
Music’s power can calm savage breast,
Myth or not, ‘tis what the poet said,
Oh, that it could put all strife at rest,
Bringing blessed peace on earth instead.
You shake your mandrill fist angrily
towards the sky
Epithet accusations hurled at God
Unrighteous indignation
rest uncomfortably
within your flat bosom
Testosterone milk
feeds your androgyny grief
You feel that your womanhood
never grew properly ...
enamel deficient of estrogen teeth
Born with male genitalia,
the mirror always reflect a female image
in your handmaiden eyes
Walking thru life
wearing a muscular disguise
is impure womb agony
Misogyny self-violence done within;
birth raped,
and weaned on silence
Queen bull dyke over your girlfriends,
gives you a pleasurable feeling
of dominance
But the tears flowing
from your androgyny grief
keep the fears growing,
Your better self a-long time stolen,
turned you into a joy thief
Lack of acceptance of God’s choice,
has left you gender blind
And those androgynous tears
are gonna
make your eyes stay forever moist
For the inner peace
you desire,
you will never surrogate find
Recoil of stone winds is like life force dream
Like a crocodile with its almost surreal force as through everglades will swim, extreme
It’s like a mandrill colorful in every scheme
Like neural flame of highest energy supreme
But this force is almost supernatural yet beyond its wall
Lies immortal and mesmerizing visage of the soul
If they only knew what was given to them as part of their whole
The wars would cease most before the end of this fall
But it will at least take time and outline
For anyone to appreciate my rhyme and it to define
And to end war change of mentality of the design
I’ can only sometimes view the stone winds so I’ll keep silent leaving it to the divine
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