Handsome Monkey King, Great Sage
Equal to Heaven, we appeal
with dusty knees and shoulders
aching to match our hearts.
Hear us, once-
Protector of Horses,
forever marked by the love
of thundering diamond hooves
and brocade snouts. We call

never in mockery, but desperation
for solidarity. Look kindly
upon the grooms that the world
has molded after you, ignored
when all is well, blamed for any
irregularity. Bless us beasts
burdened and bred for tedium.
Watch over us poor monkeys
shoved into stables unmoving/
unmoved. For what is a human
if not an ape, blessed
with extra cheek?

If we are to be chewed
into our component hairs,
let us be reborn splendid, o King.
Dress us in tigerskin. Transmute us
seventy-twice. Make us cudgel-flexible.
Deliver us from our trigrams fire-eyed,
breakable no longer. Let us find
paradise behind these waterfalls
battering us flat.

We may not all become Buddhas,
Splendid Monkey, when we fight bare-
toothed, our victory is
not guaranteed. But still
we pray: when we double
somersault for triumph,

let us not miss.