A Poem About Monkeys

            for Chloe

How they're noisy, how
they're swinging,
how the zoo is
a wild place, a place
of innovation.
The howler, the gorilla,
the capuchin:
they're all monkeys.
Your eyes see only
posture, hair,
faces like playful children.
In Curious George
the adventure is madcap,
that crazy George
loose in the modernity
we call home.
It's wacky is what it is,
how we lose each other,
how we reconnect.
And, you, at this
high end of evolution,
with your adult vocabulary,
your soulfulness,
your own sense of adventure,
you're a monkey yourself.
We all are,
and that's a secret.
We're all a little wild still,
a little too loud,
but we've learned to walk
upright, right
or wrong, and we've
learned we need the other monkeys,
in this untamed place,
our lives.

Copyright © 2007 Corey Mesler All rights reserved
from Some Identity Problems
FootHills Publishing
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission