Two Poems by Elizabeth Dobis

The Monkey

Standing there alone, a lonely rusty cup.
A bent and broken mandolin
leaning against the city clock.
A master and his monkey come wandering down the worn cobblestones.
They hold the key.

The master decides to use the key.
The monkey dances around the cup
as glittering coins rain down on the cobblestones
where the master is gently coaxing a tune from the mandolin.
People's attention is attracted by the monkey.
It makes sure that people don't run into the stone walls of the clock.

It is time for the janitor to maintain the clock.
He carries the large winding-key
up the stairs behind the monkey
while it jingles the shiny, heavy coins in the cup.
The master is still dripping notes from the broken mandolin
while he stands on the lumpy cobblestones.

From high above the city the janitor looks down onto the cobblestones,
but he resumes work on the clock
as he listens to the pathetic plucking of the master's mandolin.
While the janitor is winding the clock with the key,
It falls from his grasp and lands on the cup
smashing it to smithereens right in front of the monkey.

It scrambles to pick up the coins, that mischievous monkey,
and runs his fingers across the ground groping the cobblestones.
The master stops playing and picks up the broken pieces of the cup
while the janitor watches it all from his perch on the clock.
The monkey runs up the clock with the key
scolding for its lost money as the master takes up the mandolin.

That poor, broken, hollow sounding mandolin.
It has been worn thin by the monkey
wanting more money, but the key
scattered money all over the cobblestones
in front of the majestic clock,
and it ruined the rusty collecting cup.

Now the mandolin is lying on the cobblestones.
The monkey has left the street before the clock.
Perhaps the key was the cup.

Ode to Jupiter

A big, round ball
floating in midair
across the inky, black sea
of darkness.
A spot of light in the universe
showing through the threads
of my sock.
Bright pixel on a tiny television
screen of fuzzy bunny slippers
walking down the road
to the beat of
steel drums.
Metallic, shiny
with swirls of multicolored
paint.
Red, brown, white, yellow,
a baby chick
fragile, helpless
existing in a huge world
under the protection of its mother.
Rings surrounding it
as a king wears
its crown.
They circle around
God.
Swirling clouds
protect it from
predators.
A strong force
in our collection
of planets.
The majestic
Jupiter.