The Ape And I

Said a monkey unto me: "How I'm glad I am not you! See, I swing from tree to tree, Something that you cannot do. In gay greenery I drown; Swift to skyey hights I scale: As you watch me hang head down Don't you wish you had a tail? "Don't you wish that you could wear In the place of stuffy clothes, Just a silky coat of hair, Never shoes to cramp your toes? Never need to toil for bread, Round you nuts and fruit and spice; And with palm tuft for a bed Happily to crack your lice?" Said I: "You are right, maybe: Witting naught of wordly woe, Gloriously you are free, And of death you nothing know. Envying your monkey mind, Innocent of blight and bale, As I touch my bald behind How I wish I had a tail!" So in toils of trouble caught, Oft I wonder with a sigh If that blue-bummed ape is not Happier than I?