MONKEY:
Am I just a body that ferries my mind
Is my life real, or the dream of a butterfly?
Where is the gate that the snake said to find
How will I know what’s to come on the other side?
Find me the end of the road and I’ll follow
Take all my thoughts and make my head hollow
Show me how I seem to all who would see me
Give me the truth of myself and I’ll let go

GOOD GOAT:
Pack your things and say your prayers
If we don’t leave, we’ll never get there
Let’s blеss the years we’vе spent together

MONKEY:
Who stares at who, from the face of the river
Am I the monkey or am I the mirror?
Where does this world end, and where do I start?
Only the truth will settle my heart

GOOD GOAT:
Get on my back, we’ll follow the water
We’ll find the source for all of your wonder
I’ll carry you until I am no longer

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
Monkey stared into the stream, reaching his paws for the fish in the deep
Life can show us our dreams, though often they lay just out of our reach
Monkey fell into the water
A claw pinched him on his bottom
Good Goat sat by and laughed, and told her friend to make peace with the crabs
Monkey sprang up from the stream
And the dangers that lurked underneath
He climbed onto Good Goat’s back, grabbed her horns and they set on their way

MONKEY:
Find me a hole in the sky, the backdoor to heaven— we could slip by
The guards are asleep, they won’t hear us coming— an audience with God
And I’ll ask him myself:
Did you mean to make me this way? A King, in a family of runts
No offense to my friend, Good Goat, but let’s not pretend
I was meant to live with my nose in your grass
Just up ahead is the Vale of the Eagles— drop me up there and I’ll sail to the heavens
The claws in my mind can’t be worse than their talons
Hungry they are for morsels like us

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
Goat had never heard of a more dangerous plan
But her hooves never stopped running at pace
Soon they could hear great wings overhead
Feathered beasts, hungry for meat
Fast as lightning, sharpened steel for beaks
Monkey cried out to the wards of the sky
‘Carry me up to your paradise’
Goat found shelter under a tree
‘Are you mad?’, she yelled at Monkey


GOOD GOAT:
Murderous eyes patrol the skies
Are we just food for the Eagles’ brood?

MONKEY:
Weren’t we meant for more than a life so low?
Your strong hooves pine to climb mountains high
My nimble tail seeks the rarest air
So let’s take our shot, we’ll find the gate of the gods

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
Down from the clouds came a horrible cry
A shriek from hell—the God of the Skies
A vicious phantom from heaven’s fathoms
She snatched them both with her mighty talons
The vale disappeared as they took to the sky
In the grip of the bird who would rip out their lives
Hidden by clouds was the Eagles’ Shrine
A glittering city on the crest of a mountain

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
The claws unclenched at the mouth of a great nest
Thatched of silver grass but smoothed down like glass
Down they fell to the pit of their catch
Monkey couldn’t climb the walls—there was no way out
They sat there, in bones, in the prey of the past
As three large eggs made ready to hatch
Monkey hit at the walls of the nest
They knew that if they remained, that they’d be next


MONKEY:
Good Goat, you were right— I should have seen the fear in your eyes
We’re no closer to the heaven I seek, than a lowly peach, fell from a tree

GOOD GOAT:
Shall we sit, and wait for the next life?
No sense struggling, no sense crying

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
Monkey sat and covered his eyes
He left this world and entered his mind
Good Goat heard angry wings
The sound of birds drawing near

MONKEY:
Gods of old, if you can hear
The plea of a fool and his beloved Goat
Send us a consort, send us a Sage
To free us from this cursed cage

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
From the sky, an eagle’s cry
Into the nest her claws descended
But then streamed into the nest
An army of rats who chewed it like flesh
The prison, a wreath hard as steel
Was no match for their flurry of teeth
Monkey’s prayers had been answered
His mind had summoned the divine
Vines grew from the earth and met them
They slid back to the ground they’d come from
All the rats tails had connected
Eagles gave chase but could not catch them

COILED KING RAT:
Gods play with stars—our tails bind us
None can rest while rats roam the night
The King we seek will rise from debris
We search the wastes for the True Sage
Find the whole in what was split open
Lord of Stones, your place is back home
Fear the ascent, usurped by the serpent
Be careful of our words: coils lay within coils
Life is a trap when you’re King of the Rats

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
In the ancient days, before form, before change
Monkey had a dream while he slept under a tree
All of space and time was born in his resting mind
Rivers spread like vines across a blossoming of plains
Hopes were high, time was wide
A dream of life on the other side
No tooth, no snout, no tail, no eye
No face, no body, no mind

MONKEY:
Find me the end of the road and
I’ll follow the map in the sky and
We’ll find our way home and
We’ll live our lives like stones, happily

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
Monkey sat with Goat to contend with what they’d seen
The shedded skin of a snake blew away in the wind
Monkey had grown ten extra tails
A gift from the King of the Rats
He had tasted heaven’s tang
And wanted to go straight back

MONKEY / GOOD GOAT:
Give me wings / Turn your tails
So I can fly / I won’t go
I was so close / How narrow
I was so high / We tricked death
Call those lords / Did you not hear?
Of the sky / What Rat said?
Eagles come / To go home
Bring me home / Get off my back!

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
Somewhere an ox came down to the earth
From heaven where she’d taken rest
She walks a road as long as life
She bears a load alone, confined

GOOD GOAT:
Are you mad, you’ll get us killed
Does that snake sleep still in your mind?

MONKEY:
How my spirit saved our lives
How my place I’ve yet to find
How the sheepish eye might well stay blind

GOOD GOAT:
I see you fine
This thirst for a wild life—you can leave me behind

MONKEY:
Remember me when you get home
And how you left me here alone
Pack up all your worries for me, and go!

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
Monkey climbed up into a tree to sit on a branch Good Goat
Couldn’t reach
He crossed his legs and closed his eyes to meditate, to search
His mind
Good Goat stood still, afraid to leave. Her oldest friend just
Out of reach
She felt the miles that had grown between and the stronger
Pull of security
No brighter moon had been seen in the sky
Than the one that rose like a swan on this night
No greater friend had Monkey known
Than the Goat he’d cast into his shadow

MONKEY:
I see the towers of gold promised to me behind a great gate
I see my place on a throne, at the birth of a greater world
Find me the end of the road and I’ll follow
Take all my thoughts and make my head hollow
Show me how I seem to all of my fellows
Give me the truth of myself and I’ll let go

GOOD GOAT:
Pack my things and say my prayers
If I don’t leave, I’ll never get there
Bless all the years that we’ve spent together
Let love rest like a clover in winter

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
Monkey sat on a stump, grown from a branch high up in his tree
The ten tails come from his rump seemed to have a mind of
Their own
One wrapped around the great trunk and got stuck in a
Flowering of sap
Monkey laid down to sleep, unaware he’d been trapped in the tree

GOOD GOAT:
Look for me when you find out who you want to be
In your tree you look so happy, Monkey
Who put your face in the wrong place?
You are not alone—I’ll watch you like the full moon
I’ll stand by your side behind you, in shadows
A friend is always near, you won’t know that I’m here
Hid amongst the weeds that grow along the
Mountainside
One soul, two faces
Twin lives, one whole
You are not alone—I’ll watch you like the full moon
I’ll stand by your side behind you, in shadows
A friend is always near, you won’t know that I’m here
Hid amongst the weeds that grow along the
Mountainside
Disappear and come back to me changed
Chrysalis, the silk chains of your cage
I’ll be here at the gates of your cocoon
Inside—the world stops spinning for you
Tigers will have to come through me to get to you

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
Monkey climbed down, deep into his mind
Under the waking world was a great lake
On the shore he found a boat
He sailed away, come what dreams may
Monkey said to be glad
Of the time that we had
Don’t look back you’ll be sad
Look ahead, I’ll be there