MORE THAN MONKEY BUSINESS: Moonlight and a Simian Mind

	A monkey, moon-struck in the night,
	gazes upward, bathed in light,
	wondering what waits beyond
	its little patch of leaf and pond.

	It may know little, understand less,
	and have few answers to confess;
	yet still it pauses as it peers
	beyond familiar branches.

	While other creatures scramble, scurry,
	snatch and squabble, hunt and hurry,
	forever fighting to survive,refuses to hide,
	this one small simian, still and unstirred,
	beneath the moon with primitive thought,
	wonders what may lie beyond,
	beyond the boughs or bonds of branch 
	and bark of certainty.

	And in my ciphering, I say
	that wondering counts something 
	precious in its own way:

	One question asked beneath the sky
	may lift a creature, set it high
	above those  who, blind and bound,
	never wonder or never sound
	the silence for reasons why.


	Four friends were attending a local poetry reading at a bookstore that also served as a
art gallery and coffee shop. The heavy afternoon light filtered through its dusty windows.
Nadia shifted in her seat, her gaze lingering on the previous reader as she weighed a thought
aloud. “We’re still primitive simians in many ways.”

	Will gave a slow, contemplative nod, his eyes narrowing slightly as he followed her line
of thought. “True. Our minds often run on semi-automatic. It’s comfortable to live without
thinking too much.”

	Leaning forward, Kasim rested his elbows on the table and lowered his voice in quiet
agreement. “Deep thinking takes energy. It’s easier to coast through life without thinking
deeply."

	Wan-Sze had drifted into his own thoughts, but he returned with a quiet certainty. “Yes.
In a sense, we’re only half-asleep.”

	For a moment, none of them spoke. Outside, a bus passed with a low rumble, and the room
seemed to settle into the hush between poems.

	Then Nadia smiled faintly. “Maybe poetry is one way of waking up.”

	Will looked toward the empty podium, where the next reader was gathering their papers.
“Or at least remembering that we were asleep.”


=====================================================================================
from How Weird: Out of the Box of Expectations by T Newfields
Long Summary: While other creatures are consumed by survival, a moon-struck monkey pauses 
    to wonder at what lies beyond its world, suggesting that the simple act of asking why is what sets a thinking creature apart.
Short Summary: A poem about a monkey gazing wonderingly at the moon and conversation about critical questioning.
Keywords: simian awareness, sense of wonder, critical thinking, poetic reflections, simian symbolism,
	curiosity, monkey consciousness, simian minds, existential questioning, philosophical inquiries

NOTE: This piece was partially generated with AI tools; human editing was then applied. 

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955 - ?)
Begun: 1993 in Shizuoka, Japan ☆ Finished: 2026 in Shizuoka, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

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