Monkey Woman

Your theories cannot
                           explain her life.
How will you explain the monkey from Durban,
the one who lives in her kitchen?
His stance, almost human,
his limbs, smooth tropical wood,
hands cupped around his mouth
as if he were calling out to Pinocchio.

Your theories cannot explain her life.

Real monkeys have taken up
                  all the space in her mind.
They are loud, hungry. There's the sound
         of rustling branches, the smell
of leaves being torn. This is exile, she says,
when you don't know where
...