a monkey’s poetry

i wake up with hands meant for trees
but there are no trees here
only walls and screens i fling thoughts instead of fruit
they land nowhere
people laugh anyway i am a monkey with no jungle
trained to smile
trained to wait

きょうも
きにのぼるための て を もって
めがさめる ここには き が ない
かべ と
ひかる がめん だけ じゃんぐるの ない さる
えがお を ならわされ
まつこと を ならわされた

food falls from the sky at noon
not because i found it
not because i deserve it

my hands remember hunger
even when my mouth is full

the bars are painted green
as if color could apologize
for the shape of a cage

i am labeled
genus species age origin
none of them say why i scream at night

people call this place protection
because nothing can kill me here

except the days
which arrive slowly
and never leave

behold! i reach for fruit
and fruit betray me

it bend not like true banana
it snap wrong in the teeth
it taste of nothing past

i scream not for hunger
but for insult

what god grow banana
without tree
without dirt
without mercy

once my father ate banana from sky
i think
or maybe i invent him

here there is only ceiling
and man who throw fruit
like he sorry

give me branch
give me leaf
give me banana that fight back

i am monkey
not bowl