by Erwin Dink
Eating monkey meat starts with talk. How to cook and eat a monkey. There is nothing before this. How to cook and eat a monkey. Have you been frightened? When? Why? This is what I’m saying. Talking to whoever is here, both of them. Three of you. All of us. Are you frightened of a pig, an insect, an answer? The beating heart of a just cut eel. The picnic table has a hole in it. For the umbrella? And the refuse.
The meat has been cooked and is on the table. No plate, on the grey wood. The meat is white, the bones thin and sharp, sticking up like long needles. Monkey torso. A tiny monkey torso. The knife crunches through bone four times. Does it look like fish? Is it fish? Is it a fish? What kind. Look at yourself. Look at the oily flesh. That kind. Refuse⦠what, exactly?