Boxes

somewhere a scream proclaims
another life begun
a monkey we can bend
not yet his mother’s son
somewhere a boy in grey
walks scared through white-washed walls
to learn the monkey way
between the twisting walls
boxes
boxes
somewhere a boy now grown
made simple by his pain
makes monkeys of his own
keeps up the lifelong chain
some way us everywhere
where all the monkeys go their boxes testify
an endless row on row
boxes
boxes… oh…
from medieval bricks
a snot-nosed gargoyle stares
dead monkeys line by line
he gots the boxes here
somewhere a scream proclaims
another life begun…