A hundred monkeys
washing their sweet potatoes
in a stream,
had realised
how good their lives were,
they were living the dream.
A hundred sweet potatoes
being washed in the stream
didn’t realise their imminent situation,
they had been living in a dream,
and would soon wake up.
One stream,
having one hundred sweet potatoes
washed in it
by a hundred monkeys,
considered the way
that the world had changed.
Yet, the stream continued to flow,
and the soil from a hundred sweet potatoes
was washed away,
and the monkeys moved away
to eat their fare,
and the stream returned
to its dream of flowing here
and flowing there.
Graeme Sandford 