MONKEY:
Dragon, release me—you know not what you do I was meant for Heaven, not this graveyard of the lost If you cannot get me there, return and let me out
Raise this bridge of terrifying teeth and let me cross!

DRAGON:
What if there was no boatman, and no light by which to see? What if you were so low there was but one place left to go?

MONKEY:
Your words echo as nonsense in this belly I call home
You fly around inside my mind, yet I don’t know what you mean

DRAGON:
I patrol the skies for demons
Who would use disguises to sneak
In through the back door of heaven
Hell can hold your tricks and deceits

MONKEY:
My mind brought you into existence
I’ll send you back to the abyss
Take me where the Sages sent me
Then find your place, sat at my feet

DRAGON:
This is all real
Form is illusion
I am no figment
You’ll wake covered in tooth marks
Your mind creates
Rivers and lakes
Until you let go
There is no escape
Only a fool could ever believe
That heaven is found at the bottom of an ancient well
How far you’ve fallen, under the spell
He has your head in a coil, eating your own tail

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
Monkey was trapped in the mouth of the beast
He tried to push his way out through the wall of teeth

MONKEY:
Devourer of my soul
This pain from the teeth of a mythical beast
I beg you to set me free
I must have been sent here by some mistake

DRAGON:
No one may pierce the clouds
Before laying a solid ground
The seeds of humility
Are sown in great suffering

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
The chamber filled with smoke
The dragon constricted to the size of an eel
She sliced through the air like a blade
And flew up the well into the sunlit sky
As the dragon tore up into the sky
Monkey fell down into the guts of the horrible beast
He could not believe what he then found
The lights of a great village could be seen in the distance

The dragon climbed high in the sky
A flaming pearl lit under her chin
Far below, the ocean called
She dove in—her true home

Monkey ran towards the lights
Deep in the bowls of heaven’s drake
He pushed through the remains
Of fallen pretenders
And made it to the citadel
Of the swallowed prisoners
The dragon’s flesh
Hard as stone
They built their walls
From the bones of the dead
The bowel dwellers
Gathered ’round
To welcome Monkey
A mischief of rats
Dragon’s scales turned to hard plate
The turtled God found the bottom of the sea
A great palace grew from her shell
In a forest of vents, hot chimneys of hell

MONKEY:
Good rats, you grow so old
How long has it been in this hold?
This city you’ve built out of bones
Has the dragon swallowed all your hope?


ANCIENT RAT:
Time plays tricks on me
It could be weeks or centuries
We saw heaven up in the sky
Lizards told us how to fly—
‘Find the Dragon, hitch a ride’
Scaly zealots sold us a lie
Monkey tell us, did you die
Have our fates become entwined?
Do we weave a pointless tale In this putrid afterlife?
Or are you to be our Sage
That bends the bars of this cage?
Take our lives into your hands
In this hamlet of the damned

MONKEY:
For a moment I could feel
Good Goat in the tree with me
Her whiskers tickle as I sleep
My fur dampens as she weeps

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
Days pass
Weeks pass
Years pass
Lives pass

MONKEY:
As your brothers rescued me
I will free us from this beast
Who is that, I barely see who hides himself in sleep from me?
Prince of Patience, come and talk
How has the Dragon swallowed an ox?

OX:
I found Dragon once I left you to your palace
Full of your daydreams
I’ve been waiting here to help you find the thing I think you need to

MONKEY:
Bring me every able rat in the village, plus their cats
Comb these guts for every soul who calls this wretched creature home

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
While the ancient dragon slept in her great turtle shell
Waiting for hell’s wards to open their hot vents
Monkey made haste, no more time to waste
He could teach them, he could lead them

MONKEY:
Line yourselves up in a row and pluck one whisker from your nose
How we labour, how we plan for my many-whiskered fan
Feel a tickle in your snout, feel a rumble in your bowels
Feel the splinter in your soul, let it out, let it out!

I cannot be kept in any cage the jealous gods erect
I will know my fate, they will go limp as I pass through the middle gate

OX:
Bid farewell to this cage that held you
Let’s break our chains so we can fly away

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
All the rats fastened in a line, each tail in the mouth behind
Wound around the Ox’s tail—to Nirvana let them fly
Monkey grew one hand to hold the Thousand-Whiskered Fan, which he Ran along the soft skin, inside the beast, who let out a mighty sneeze
They all flew past the teeth, leaving the Dragon alone in the murky deep
Then high into the sky, Monkey rode Ox with a serpent of rats behind
Ox gave Monkey the harness, so he would stop rising
He put it on, finally, and fell to the earth
The Ox kept flying, the rats trailed behind her
Like the string of a kite
How such murmurations
Had opened his heart
Monkey was crying
His mind in submission
The harness was working
He left his ego behind, in the Dragon
Oh humble Monkey, alone on a new road
To follow his heart

LOVELORN MONKEY:
What is there to see, up in an empty sky?
There’s no one to care, no one to see me
Is anybody there?
I can still feel the tears that you left on my skin
How long until I can see your face again, hold your tender hand?
Would you still recognize me, if I came back into your life again?

LOVELORN GOAT:
Time has grown my horns out of my soft skin
Life gave me more thorns than I ever put in
When will you wake up?
Come out of your dream
I just want to scream, let you know I never left your side

LOVELORN MONKEY / LOVELORN GOAT:
How long until I can see your face again, hold your tender hand?
Would you still recognize me, if I came back into your life again?
How long until I can see your face again, hold your tender hand?
Would you still recognize me, if I came back into your life again?

MONKEY:
What flows over the sand, black as the night, covered in scales?
Oh wise river of time, how did you find me in this place?
It was so long ago that you showed me the hole I wore for a face
Come, flow, swallow me now, take me away, show me the gate
I feel something inside, the slow sting of venom, the tooth of the snake

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
Soon the river came still
The water went clear
In the light of the sun
Into it Monkey peered
It shone like a mirror—
A reflection appeared

THE RIVER:
I am the River
I am the life
Cut through the wasteland
I am the night
Come like the serpent, up from the well
I am the River, you are my child

MONKEY:
I am the body that ferries my mind
This is the gate that the snake said to find
Who will stare back from the face of the river
Am I the Monkey, or am I the mirror?
Show me my face
This river is deep, like a lake
A new world here is laid
Staring back, in jade

JADE MONKEY:
Child, this is the gate—
Walk through, give me a taste
This is where your fears lay down
Turn to dust and blow away

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
The face in the mirror staring back was atrocious
Hard as a stone to the withered bone
His body made up of every form
The Jaded Trickster
The Imprisoned Emperor

MONKEY:
Who could this be staring back at me
This monstrosity, why does it feel familiar to me?

GOLDEN FISHERMAN:
Monkey came closer to the surface of the water
The two reflections touched, the two lives traded places
Monkey stepped underneath into a world with no changes
If he had looked behind, he would have seen
The ancient monkey climb out of the stream
Always sailing, are the ships
Candles through the night, always lit
The splintered eye watches through the slit
The teeth always sharpened
The venom drips

MONKEY - DAMIAN ABRAHAM
FALLEN DRAGON - SALLY MORREADORA
GOLDEN FISHERMAN - CHRIS COLOHAN, JONAH FALCO, MIKE HALIECHUK
ANCIENT RAT - WALTER SCHREIFELS (RECORDED BY TJ PENZONE)
SAGE OX - CARSON MCHONE (RECORDED BY DANIEL ROMANO)
LOVELORN MONKEY - BRANDON WELCHEZ
LOVELORN GOAT - LEIGH ARTHUR
THE RIVER - EIDOLON
JADE MONKEY - JOHN BRANNON (RECORDED BY DELEANO ACEVEDO)