THE MONKEY CHURLS ARE NOT IMPRRESSED
...
at sunset i go up
to the north fort above Badami
and stand in the high bastion
surrounded by monkeys
cos Badami
the very ex-capital of the
very ex-Chalyuka Empire
has a zillion monkeys…
a plague a plethora a lot...
tugging at your water-bottle in
cheeky-monkey thieving-monkey style ...
some monkeys are like nimble one-year olds
and hilarious to watch
well these are like grumpy old men
they look at you from the side of their eye
they look away but you know they're aware of you
its a bit like being a stranger in a country pub
but a lot more like that scene from
Lawrence Of Arabia
where he's in full Arab dress
in the very British Officers Club in Cairo
and they're all very British proper
and looking at him
thinking
what does he think he looks like?
well, the monkeys
studiously unsmiling
that's what they're like with me
they're thinking
he used to be one of us,
now what does he think he looks like?
...
on the whole, he wished he'd stayed in tunbridge wells
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