i quit my job and went to the zoo

By Rohith Sundararaman


i was near the monkey enclosure and somebody went psst
i looked around and people were busy reading the map
and throwing peanuts at red ass baboons
while i was looking at these people, somebody went psst again
i looked around and stared at the monkey in the enclosure
the monkey winked at me and then psst at me
i walked towards the enclosure
the monkey walked towards the enclosure
only bars separated us
a board said, do not feed the monkeys even if they wink at you
i have no peanuts, i said
the monkey nodded its brown head
i looked at it for a while and then at the board
orangutan enclosure, it read
so you are an orangutan, i said
it scratched its privates
orangutans are supposed to be smart, i continued
who said we aren't, it said and bared its teeth
the teeth was sick yellow like the malaise of soceity
indeed, i concurred
people around me walked away from the enclosure of the talking orangutan
humans aren't that bright, it said
they don't notice what is in front of them
and they seek what they have but don't know they have
sometimes they don't even need what they have
so why should they have what they have
i grew tired of the postulating orangutan
and i started walking away from it
it removed a pouch of peanuts from a pocket and started throwing it at me
come back here you mutated piece of DNA, it screamed
i kept my composure
while the keeper in a PETA shirt ran past me with scotch tape in his hand
if evolution meant keeping rude monkeys behind bars
it wasn't such a bad thing, after all

Rohith Sundararaman lives in Bombay, India. He invites foreign authors for a tour of India and gets them mauled by rowdy, misbehaving cows and elephants that saunter Indian roads. Occasionally, he engraves poems on trees with tiger claws. Some of his scribbles have appeared in Eclectica, Elimae, The Deepening, GUD, Tom's Voice, Andwerve and elsewhere. If you want a tour of India, you know whom to call.