male gorillas [ruth stone]

At the doughnut shop

twenty-three silverbacks

are lined up at the bar,

sitting on the stools.

It's morning coffee and trash day.

The waitress has a heavy feeling face,

considerate with carmine lipstick.

She doesn't brown my fries.

I have to stand at the counter

and insist on my order.

I take my cup of coffee to a small

inoffensive table along the wall.

At the counter the male chorus line

is lined up tight.

I look at their almost identical butts;

their buddy hunched shoulders,

the curve of their ancient spines.

They are methodically browsing

in their own territory.

This data goes into that vast

confused library, the female mind.

Ruth Stone

two monkeys of brueghel [wislawa szymborska]

I keep dreaming of my graduation exam:

in a window sit two chained monkeys,

beyond the window floats the sky,

and the sea splashes.

I am taking an exam on the history of mankind:

I stammer and flounder.

One monkey, eyes fixed upon me, listens ironically,

the other seems to be dozing –

and when silence follows a question,

he prompts me

with a soft jingling of the chain.

Wislawa Szymborska

[ ? ]