down in the green hay   where monkey and bear usually lay   they woke from a stable-boy's cry      he said; someone come quick!   the horses got loose, got grass-sick!   they'll founder! fain, they'll die      what is now known by the sorrel and the roan?   by the chestnut, and the bay, and the gelding grey?      it is: stay by the gate you are given   and remain in your place, for your season   and had the overfed dead but listened   to that high-fence, horse-sense, wisdom...      "did you hear that, Bear?" said monkey   we'll get out of here, fair and square   they've left the gate open wide!      so;   my bride   here is my hand, where is your paw?   try and understand my plan, Ursala   my heart is a furnace   full of love that's just, and earnest   now; you know that we must unlearn this   allegiance to a life of service   and no longer answer to that heartless   hay-monger, nor be his accomplice   (that charlatan, with artless hustling!)   but; Ursala, we've got to eat something   and earn our keep, while still within   the borders of the land that man has girded   (all double-bolted and tightfisted!)   until we reach the open country   a-steeped in milk and honey      will you keep your fancy clothes on, for me?   can you bear a little longer to wear that leash?   my love, I swear by the air I breathe:   sooner or later, you'll bare your teeth      but for now, just dance, darling   c'mon, will you dance, my darling?   darling, there's a place for us   can we go, before I turn to dust?   oh my darling, there's a place for us   oh darling   c'mon will you dance, my darling?   oh, the hills are groaning with excess   like a table ceaselessly being set   oh my darling, we will get there yet      they trooped past the guards,   past the coops, and the fields, and the farmyards   all night, till finally:      the space they gained grew   much farther than the stone that bear threw   to mark where they'd stop for tea      but walk a little faster   and don't look backwards   your feast is to the East, which lies a little past the pasture      when the blackbirds hear tea whistling, they rise and clap   and their applause caws the kettle black   and we can't have none of that!      move along, Bear; there, there; that’s that   (though cast in plaster   our Ursala's heart beat faster   than monkey's ever will)      but still;   they have got to pay the bills   hadn't they?   that is what the monkey'd say      so, with the courage of a clown, or a cur   or a kite, jerking tight at its tether   in her dun-brown gown of fur   and her jerkin of swan's down and leather      Bear would sway on her hind legs;   the organ would grind dregs of song, for the pleasure   of the children, who'd shriek   throwing coins at her feet   then recoiling in terror      sing, dance, darling   c'mon, will you dance, my darling?   oh darling, there's a place for us   can we go, before I turn to dust?   oh my darling, there’s a place for us      oh darling   c'mon, will you dance, my darling?   you keep your eyes fixed on the highest hill   where you'll ever-after eat your fill   oh my darling, dear, mine   if you dance   dance, darling, and i love you still      deep in the night   shone a weak and miserly light   where the monkey shouldered his lamp      someone had told him   the bear had been wandering   a fair piece away from where they were camped      someone had told him   the bear'd been sneaking away   to the seaside caverns, to bathe      and the thought troubled the monkey   for he was afraid of spelunking down in those caves   also afraid what the village people would say   if they saw the bear in that state;   lolling and splashing obscenely   well, it seemed irrational, really; washing that face   washing that matted and flea-bit pelt   in some sea-spit-shine, old kelp dripping with brine   but monkey just laughed, and he muttered;   when she comes back, Ursala will be bursting with pride      'til I jump up!   saying: you've been rolling in muck!   saying: you smell of garbage and grime!      but far out   far out   by now   by now   far out, by now, Bear ploughed   'cause she would not drown:      first the outside-legs of the bear   up and fell down, in the water, like knobby garters   then the outside-arms of the bear   fell off, as easy as if sloughed from boiled tomatoes   low'red in a genteel curtsy   bear shed the mantle of her diluvian shoulders;   and, with a sigh, she allowed the burden of belly   to drop like an apronfull of boulders      if you could hold up her threadbare coat to the light   where it's worn translucent in places   you'd see spots where almost every night of the year   Bear had been mending suspending that baseness   now her coat drags through the water   bagging, with a life's-worth of hunger, limitless minnows   in the magnetic embrace   balletic and glacial of Bear's insatiable shadow      left there!   left there!   when Bear left Bear      left there!   left there!   when Bear stepped clear of Bear      (sooner or later, you'll bury your teeth...)