Monkey with a Gun –
Monkey with a Gun –
It was a quarter past six
in the early morning sun
When the cry rang out,
“Monkey with a Gun!”
You see, it was
a chimpanzee
that had escaped to the top
of a very tall tree,
In that early morning sun,
No one knew just where that
Monkey got a gun
But it was up to Bob –
Caretaker Bob,
for it was his job
to bring down
that monkey with a gun –
Before the gathered crowd,
that had not the sense to run,
In that now early afternoon sun,
Caretaker Bob scaled the fence
to reach the branch of the tree
where sat the chimpanzee,
In the early afternoon sun,
Looking at the people below
who hadn’t the sense to run,
but who gawked and pointed at
the monkey with a gun –
Poor old Bob,
Caretaker Bob,
Whose job it was
to climb the tree
& try to get that chimpanzee
He reached the top,
In the late afternoon sun,
of the tree, where sat that chimpanzee
While at the bottom the crowd,
that didn’t have the sense to run,
watched brave Bob approach that
Monkey with a gun
He approached slowly,
Spoke sweetly
Promised that monkey anything,
Beneath that late afternoon sun,
When a shot rang out with a thunderous BANG
And old Bob,
Poor old Bob,
Whose job it was to scale that fence
And climb that tree
To try and get that chimpanzee
Fell –
He fell from the tippy-top of
that very tall tree
Like a sack of flour
He landed
In front of …me
He lay still and broken,
In that early evening sun,
And you know that crowd that didn’t have the sense to run?
Ran –
I stood and watched them,
In that early evening sun,
I watched them scatter & run
for suddenly they realized,
In that early evening sun,
That that Monkey had a Gun!
Poor old Bob was laid to rest
the very next day,
In the early morning sun,
Shot dead by that
Monkey with a Gun
And you may ask
what did happen
to that chimpanzee
that sat so very high
way up in that tree
from early morning
in the bright daylight sun –
Well no one knows you see,
For he got down out of that tree
and disappeared,
that monkey with a gun disappeared,
In that late evening sun –
So listen close and please pay heed
to my tale –
For if ever comes the time in
the early morning sun,
That you hear some one shout
‘Monkey with a Gun!’
Remember this story
And remember Old Bob,
Who was laid to rest in
the early morning sun,
After being shot dead by that
Monkey with a gun –
If it falls to you
Whose job, like Poor Old Bob,
it is to scale that fence
and climb that tree
To try and get that chimpanzee
I suggest you remember
it took just one shot
by that chimpanzee
to knock Poor Old Bob
Out of that tree
and to fall to the ground in front
of me
In that late afternoon sun –
I would suggest at the very
mention of
‘Monkey with a Gun!’
That you run
The opposite direction
and remember that one shot,
in the late afternoon sun,
and assume that that monkey
still has bullets in that gun –
(a poem I wrote back in 1995(?)…I had a Seuss-ical cadence bouncing around in my head and the words started coming together…)
Thanks for reading!
- todd
