The Orange Monkey

Written By：Polly Jean Harvey

A restlessness took hold my brain

And questions

I could not hold back

An orange monkey on a chain

On a bleak uneven track

Told me that to understand

You must travel back time

I took a plane to a forein land

And said

I'll write down what I find

Beneath a mountain's jagged shelves

Cloacked with snow and shadows sheer

Plates tipped up upon themselves

The pain of fifty million years

And mules and goats were running wild

A happy chaos carried on

And old men and young boys smiled

And worked until the day was gone

Packs of sandy-coloured dogs

Walked streets that looked like building sites

But piles of rocks and dust and smog

Could not hold block out a different light

When I returned

I ran to meet

The monkey but his face had changed

He stood before me on two feet

The track was now a motorway