Two Poems from A Gran Zoo
Monty Reid

after Nicolas Guillen

Guitarra

They were hunting for music under a full moon.

They were pale and delicate and promiscuous.
They were elegant.

This guitar they brought home, at
least it’s better than the last one.

You can hear its grain thrum with the old songs
and this time you didn’t have to fuck anybody for it.

Ah, all the old wings go flutter
flutter.

Put that thing in the case, if there is
a case, and let it dream for a while.

You can play the other one.



Monkeys

Monkey territory.

Now we give them a bit of liberty.

We give them a hat and a bottle of anis.
Because there once was a popular anis called Anis del Mono.
They get out some.

A greatcoat and its dreams of monkey heroes.
We are not at liberty to explain this to you.

A bureaucrat on a bicycle.
A banker in a car. A well-dressed monkey.
Monkey business, monkeyshines.

Dream monkey.
And all the others you wanted to interpret.

If you come back after the monkey harvest
we’ll have 600 more monkeys
for you to mistake as your own.

1996 © 2010