"Our fathers frisked in the millet,
"Our fathers skipped in the wheat,
"Our fathers hung from the branches,
"Our fathers danced in the street.
"Then came the terrible farmers,
"Nothing of play they knew,
"Only … they caught our fathers
"And set them to labour too!
"Set them to work in the cornland
"With ploughs and sickles and flails,
"Put them in mud-walled prisons,
"And—cut off their beautiful tails!
"Now, we can watch our fathers,
"Sullen and bowed and old,
"Stooping over the millet,
"Sharing the silly mould,
"Driving a foolish furrow,
"Mending a muddy yoke,
"Sleeping in mud-walled prisons,
"Steeping their food in smoke.
"We may not speak with our fathers,
"For if the farmers knew
"They would come up to the forest
"And set us to labour too."
This is the horrible story
Told as the twilight fails
And the monkeys walk together
Holding their neighbours' tails.
