Colin Robinson
An anthropologist speaks
There is a tortoise upon which a monkey stands
But the monkey has fleas and keeps scratching himself
In consequence of which the lion on the monkey’s shoulder
Is moved this way and that and the hippopotamus
He supports and which in turn supports the world
Doesn’t think much of the arrangement and keeps trying
To return to the River of Oblivion from which he slithered.
I hope that’s clear. The Bongolols, among whom I lived for
a season,
Told me that these important facts had been revealed to
them
By the Reverend Bertie Backslider, as he called himself,
Who arrived years before in a canoe with a harmonium,
Bottles of a powerful elixir and two attendant handmaidens,
And he revealed these mysteries in sincere and fervent
tones
And tore up black-covered books for them to cook pots
over.
But the monkey has fleas and keeps scratching himself
In consequence of which the lion on the monkey’s shoulder
Is moved this way and that and the hippopotamus
He supports and which in turn supports the world
Doesn’t think much of the arrangement and keeps trying
To return to the River of Oblivion from which he slithered.
I hope that’s clear. The Bongolols, among whom I lived for
a season,
Told me that these important facts had been revealed to
them
By the Reverend Bertie Backslider, as he called himself,
Who arrived years before in a canoe with a harmonium,
Bottles of a powerful elixir and two attendant handmaidens,
And he revealed these mysteries in sincere and fervent
tones
And tore up black-covered books for them to cook pots
over.
Page(s) 22
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