Monkey Business

A hungry monkey atop a tree

Saw a bag which looked good

Grabbing it the monkey went

Hoping to find some food

The bag was full of stamp duty

And maybe some court fee

It was snatched from a lawyer

And found itself on a tall tree

The monkey who did this act

Thought it was very funny

As hundreds gathered below

For the wads of paper money

Banana bribes were offered

In return for the precious stuff

The monkey opened the bag

With intent to call their bluff

It first chewed a crisp note

And found that it tasted bad

So it started scattering them

As it was hungry, angry, sad

The scene below was chaotic

Notes descended from the sky

Everyone was clutching money

Never mind whose or why!

The monkey on top of the tree

Saw everyone running around

To grab what they couldn't eat

Yet happy with what they found

As lawyers grappled grabbers

To retrieve notes meant as fee

The monkey quietly descended

And took the bananas for free!

(Raju Z. Moray is a Mumbai-based lawyer who enjoys writing poems.He is the author of two books 'Court Jester'(2017) and 'The Locked Down Lawyer'(2020). The views expressed are personal.)