The Indifferent Monkey: 01.2006

1.30.2006

Hee Hee

In shadowed glades amongst the ancient trees,
where wanderers have never happened by,
beneath the sweetened hives of honey bees
reside a Folk apart from you and I.
They dance in houses carved in mushroom stalks
and light the forests with their twilight glow;
they fill the air with careless tiny-talks
and toss their dusts to help the flowers grow.
Their hearts are pure; they never want for love
or friendly warmth on chilly, moonless nights.
They're often lurking silently above
as we, their neighbors, chase their floating lights.
They hover always near us when we sleep
and ride our dreams within the forest deeps.

1.26.2006

Kunisada III Utagawa (1848-1920)

Sloshing mud below
so the footing does not hold.
The thrust misses wide.

One yari in hand,
another behind his ear.
No time to bargain.

Sun through tall rushes
glints on tanto, raised to sky.
Monkey turns to flee.

1.25.2006

Wanna finish her off?

I see in Fight Club the strongest and smartest men who have ever lived -- an entire generation pumping gas and waiting tables; or they're slaves with white collars. Advertisements have us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We are the middle children of history, with no purpose or place. We have no Great War, no Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We were raised by television to believe that we would be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars -- but we won't. And we're learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed-off.

1.23.2006

oυκ ωρχιπεδισας

Tereus: All right, then, what kind of city would you like to live in?

Euelpides: I'd like a city where my biggest problem
would be something like this--in the morning
a friend comes to my door and says to me,
"In the name of Olympian Zeus, take a bath,
an early one, you and your children,
then come to my place for the wedding feast
I'm putting on. Don't disappoint me now.
If you do, then don't come looking for me
when my affairs get difficult for me."

Tereus: By heaven, you poor man, you do love trouble. What about you?

Peisetairos: I'd like the same.

Tereus: Like what?

Peisetairos: To have the father of some handsome lad
come up to me, as if I'd done him wrong,
and tell me off with some complaint like this--
"A fine thing there is between you and my son,
you old spark. You met him coming back
from the gymnasium, after his bath--
you didn't kiss or greet him with a hug,
or even try tickling his testicles--
yet you're a friend of mine, his father."

Tereus: How you yearn for problems, you unhappy man.

1.19.2006

Recap, II

Interlocutor 'The Cynic':
"I've turned into a cynic. I see all these people who think they are happy. Its not going to last! The feeling goes away!"

The Indifferent Monkey:
When is long too long and far too far?
When discovery,
when peace?
We are misled.

Interlocutor 'The Cynic':
"So it's not just me(?)"

The Indifferent Monkey:
You can walk it home straight from school
You can kiss it, you can break all the rules
but still...
Everything is broken.
Everyone is broken.

1.14.2006

Learn to swim

Tool
"Ænema"

Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will.
I sure could use a vacation from this

Bullshit three ring circus sideshow of
Freaks

Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.
Any fucking time. Any fucking day.
Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay.

Fret for your figure and
Fret for your latte and
Fret for your hairpiece and
Fret for your lawsuit and
Fret for your prozac and
Fret for your pilot and
Fret for your contract and
Fret for your car.

It's a
Bullshit three ring circus sideshow of
Freaks

Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.
Any fucking time. Any fucking day.
Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay.

Some say a comet will fall from the sky.
Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves.
Followed by faultlines that cannot sit still.
Followed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits.

Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will cuz
I sure could use a vacation from this

Silly shit, stupid shit...

One great big festering neon distraction,
I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied.

Learn to swim.

Mom's gonna fix it all soon.
Mom's comin' round to put it back the way it ought to be.

Learn to swim.

Fuck L Ron Hubbard and
Fuck all his clones.
Fuck all those gun-toting
Hip gangster wannabes.

Learn to swim.

Fuck retro anything.
Fuck your tattoos.
Fuck all you junkies and
Fuck your short memory.

Learn to swim.

Fuck smiley glad-hands
With hidden agendas.
Fuck these dysfunctional,
Insecure actresses.

Learn to swim.

Cuz I'm praying for rain
And I'm praying for tidal waves
I wanna see the ground give way.
I wanna watch it all go down.
Mom please flush it all away.
I wanna watch it go right in and down.
I wanna watch it go right in.
Watch you flush it all away.

Time to bring it down again.
Don't just call me pessimist.
Try and read between the lines.

I can't imagine why you wouldn't
Welcome any change, my friend.

I wanna see it all come down.
suck it down.
flush it down.

"..........."

Poseidon: "What are you looking at? You see this finger? This finger has raised the fury of the waves and smashed heroes. I think that mortal Homer had it about right when he said:

With that he rammed the clouds together--both hands
clutching his trident--churned the waves into chaos, whipping
all the gales from every quarter, shrouding over in thunderheads
the earth and sea at once--and night swept down from the sky--
East and South Winds clashed and the raging West and North,
sprung from the heavens, roiled heaving breakers up--
and Odysseus' knees quaked, his spirit too;
numb with fear he spoke to his own great heart:
'Wretched man--what becomes of me now, at last?'

So you best check yourself before you get in my face, son."

The Indifferent Monkey: "..........."

Artemis: "Zeus on a cracker--give it a rest, Poseidon."

1.10.2006

Wiht unhælo, grim ond grædig

Grendel this monster grim was called,
march-riever mighty, in moorland living,
in fen and fastness; fief of the giants
the hapless wight a while had kept
since the Creator his exile doomed.
On kin of Cain was the killing avenged
by sovran God for slaughtered Abel.
Ill fared his feud, and far was he driven,
for the slaughter's sake, from sight of men.
Of Cain awoke all that woful breed,
Etins and elves and evil-spirits,
as well as the giants that warred with God
weary while: but their wage was paid them!

Went he forth to find at fall of night
that haughty house, and heed wherever
the Ring-Danes, outrevelled, to rest had gone.
Found within it the atheling band
asleep after feasting and fearless of sorrow,
of human hardship. Unhallowed wight,
grim and greedy, he grasped betimes,
wrathful, reckless, from resting-places,
thirty of the thanes, and thence he rushed
fain of his fell spoil, faring homeward,
laden with slaughter, his lair to seek.
Then at the dawning, as day was breaking,
the might of Grendel to men was known;
then after wassail was wail uplifted,
loud moan in the morn.

Beowulf I-II

1.06.2006

More Porch???

We are the easily-tired
of busy work
and pointless points
and constant misconceptions.
Evening soothes our souls --
we are the easily-amused
by passing cars and passing lives,
safely perched on porch thrones,
crunching chilly cheap delights between our teeth.

We are the left-behind,
always learning too late
just what we lost.
No pleas
or pardons
can
bring us back again.

And so we stumble
along the path,
redefining
each day and then
forgetting what we declare.
We share our thoughts and we swear
that one day our thoughts will apply.

When is long too long and far too far?
When discovery,
when peace?
We are misled.

1.03.2006

"The Heart"

Some might have crawled forward, or tried to rally moisture from an already-parched tongue. The Indifferent Monkey quoted Crane:

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.

I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter--bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."

1.02.2006

Currahee!

"...How does danger break down the barriers of the self and give man an experience of community? [It is] the power of union with our fellows. In moments [of danger] many have a vague awareness of how isolated and separate their lives have hitherto been and how much they have missed. . . . With the boundaries of the self expanded, they sense a kinship never known before."

"[There are] two stages of rationalization a combat soldier goes through -- it can't happen to me, then it can happen to me, unless I'm more careful -- followed by a stage of 'accurate perception: it is going to happen to me, and only my not being there [on the front lines] is going to prevent it.' Some men never get to the perception; for others, it comes almost at once. When it does come to a member of a rifle company in the front line, it is almost impossible to make him stay there and do his duty. His motivation has to be internal. Comradeship is by far the strongest motivator -- not wanting to let his buddies down, in the positive sense, not wanting to appear a coward in front of the men he loves and respects above all others in the negative sense. Discipline wont do it, because discipline relies on punishment, and there is no punishment the Army can inflict on a front-line soldier worse than putting him into the front line."

-from Ambrose, Band of Brothers

(A Monkey's thoughts are safely irrelevant...)

: Name: The Indifferent Monkey

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The Indifferent Monkey was born in Atlanta in the Summer of 1998. Although it cannot be confirmed, it is rumored that he originated at Zoo Atlanta's gift shop. He is, as you may have noticed, largely indifferent. Snuggle him, smack him, freeze him, drop him from a height -- it doesn't matter much to him. He is inexorably unmistakably blessedly Indifferent.

The Indifferent Monkey