They said and they held their pipes
and said be nice to the monkeys, smile
the weather was nice
and they were attractive, foreign
yellowed with places like old
photographs, accented
and of course it was, we were
young and far away
people selling snakes, elephantiasis
rice in brightly painted
cups, hotel rooms, urine smell
years later there were dinners, dances
other places, stars went
out, more bad weather, the car
stuck in the snow, in all
I finally learned that
you don't smile at
monkeys

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from the author: "This is a true story about a visit to Swayambunath temple in Kathmandu ca. 1978, where I learned that one does not bare one's teeth in the presence of male baboons the size of Alsatians, and eventually other lessons as well."