Junkie Monkey Reel
Junkie Monkey Reel - meaning Summary
Addiction as Bodily Erosion
The poem charts a speaker’s physical and mental decline under an addictive compulsion. It lists bodily failures—weak shoulders, failing knees, rotten teeth—and shifting cognitive loss as memories and moral bearings erode. Animalistic imagery frames the condition as a degrading, involuntary dance, while glimpses of historical rupture suggest deeper cultural or ancestral dislocation behind the collapse. The closing question leaves the duration of this destructive pattern unresolved.
Read Complete AnalysesShoulders sag, The pull of weighted needling. Arms drag, smacking wet in soft bone Sockets. Knees thaw, Their familiar magic lost. Old bend and Lock and bend forgot. Teeth rock in fetid gums. Eyes dart, die, then float in Simian juice. Brains reel, Master charts of old ideas erased. The Routes are gone beneath the tracks Of desert caravans, pre-slavery Years ago. Dreams fail, Unguarded fears on homeward streets Embrace. Throttling in a dark revenge Murder is its sweet romance. How long will This monkey dance?
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