I wish I could climb a guava tree

and sit among its fruit

in the shade of a yellow umbrella

and converse with black-faced langurs.

I would do better trying to understand

their tilted heads and curling lips

than beword the thoughts formed

in my own white-faced head.

I would hold a guava and recite lines

from Hamlet, so that when these poor langurs

are sat in front of a typewriter for billions of years,

they will sooner complete the works of Shakespeare.

I would teach them to use their tails,

show them it is what they do in the New World.
And they will know how to behave

when they discover America.

And I would climb down from the guava tree
satisfied with my Promethean evangelism,

with my following of black-faced langurs

disciples ready to do my bidding.

-JEBM '08