There Are Monkeys Everywhere [IndieInk Writing Challenge]

For the IndieInk Writing Challenge this week, Sherree challenged me with “There were monkeys everywhere, and that wasn’t a good thing.” and I challenged SAM with “Write a piece in which a can of soda is of significant importance.”

There Are Monkeys Everywhere

The monkeys still jump on the bed,
and the sight fills me with dread.
When a monkey bumps its head
another comes to take its stead.

They’ve been jumping years, it seems.
This must be the stuff of dreams:
The flying fur, the high-pitched screams.
The bed is full; the mattress teems

with tails, and teeth, and screeching sounds.
A massive presence which confounds,
for when a monkey hits the ground,
there is one more to be found.

I have tried to get them out.
At first I’d raise my voice and shout.
But it seems I have no clout;
they’d ignore me, dance about.

Then I tried to call the zoo.
Surely they’d know what to do.
But, alas, that was not true.
The monkeys made fools of them, too.

Now I stand and watch them dance,
watch them turn, watch them prance.
I try to oust with pleading glance,
but I don’t seem to have a chance.

Despite my tricks, they don’t disperse.
The problem seems to just grow worse.
I wonder where I got this curse
which I now describe in verse.

The monkeys still jump on the bed,
and the sight fills me with dread.
When a monkey bumps its head
another comes to take its stead.

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Interested in knowing more about the piece? Click below the jump.

First of all, I was really amused to get another monkey prompt. But these are assigned randomly, so maybe the universe just really wants me writing about monkeys right now.

I actually wrote four different pieces in response to this prompt.My mind was going in lots of different directions, so I figured I’d write several pieces and just post the one I liked the best. Two of them were pseudo-haiku, and two were rhyme (the other rhyme was a villanelle). This piece that I have posted came to me last, and I was inspired by my memory of Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed – though I tried to take a more sinister light on the subject. I didn’t incorporate the prompt line directly into the poem, but I feel like I embodied the spirit of it.