appealing

The Maynard
Fall 2017

Elaine Woo

Parallel Kingdom

Thousands of miles across the sea, in a land of haw trees and lotus

blossoms, the Monkey King ruptures from a stone. He bears concrete

muscles, girth of great circumference; boasts magical prowess.

 

Oversight: burdened with non-transformable always-there-tail.

 

Dressed in a suit of gold, armed with a sword of light, the Monkey King,

glinting like sun-struck tears, desiring to be the mightiest, raises an army

of monkeys against heaven; a sea of heads round and rough as coconuts,

from a single hair plucked from his arm.

 

Buddha, affronted, punishes the Monkey King by incarcerating him

as the dot under the punctuation-mark-mountain to languish, reflect

for a brief 500 years.