Tarzan in the Treetops

Tarzan sits on a branch

And dreams about grabbing a vine

Hearing it snap

And falling all the way down

To the jungle floor

He hears Jane calling for him

Or maybe it’s just his hearing

Lately Jane and the howler monkeys

All sound alike

She wants him to trim the branches

Near the house

And he keeps saying he’ll do it

But then he forgets

And when he doesn’t forget

He just doesn’t want to do it

And that’s an obstacle as well

It’s not that he likes making Jane angry

He just doesn’t feel like doing

Much of anything anymore

The jungle is a different place now

The animals he loved the best

Died so many years ago

That now he tries befriending

Their great-great grandchildren
Only to be rebuffed

What does a young ape want

With some old man

Who can’t even keep up

In a race through the trees

Each vine seeming more and more

Impossible to grab

He tells Jane that now

The vines are further and further apart from each other

Much more so than when he was young

But she tells him

That’s just his age

Showing itself

And asks him when he’s going to put in

That new fire pit

She’s been asking him for

They have neighbors now

Linda and Steve

Who are two trees over

‘Linda has a fire pit,’ Jane tells him

‘A fire pit and contraption Steve made

That washes their clothes’

Tarzan grunts

And goes back to eating the things

He finds in his hair

‘Steve said he would show you

How to make one.

You should talk to him.’

Tarzan would rather

Swing face-first into the hardest tree in the jungle

Than talk to Steve

About anything

He jumps into the leaves

Pretending he can’t hear Jane

Calling after him

Reminding him that tonight is their anniversary

And he needs to pick up berries

For the torte she’s making

Tarzan dreams of getting poisoned berries

Enjoying one last dinner with Jane, his love

And then holding her as the two of them

Pass away softly in their sleep

The animals would devour most of their bodies

Before Linda and Steve stumbled upon them

And the idea of traumatizing their neighbors in that way
Only makes the idea that much more attractive

Tarzan travels a few miles

Going vine by vine

Until he stops

And rests

He needs to rest so much more now

And he can only travel a third of the distance

He used to be able to cover

In a day

Down below, the ground doesn’t look

As far away as it used to

In fact, it seems like he could touch it

If he just let himself fall forward a bit

And didn’t worry

About the drop

He closes his eyes

And envisions Jane calling into the jungle

For hours and hours

Only to hear nothing back

The night pulling into her

Realizing that her worst fear and greatest hope

Had finally come to fruition

She was alone

When he opens his eyes

Tarzan is still in the treetops

But the ground beneath him

Seems to have pulled away

Though that may be the result

Of two young apes

Running around each other

Making too much noise

For this time of night

Risking the attention

Of a predator

He’s just about to drop down

And scare them away

When he stops himself

And sits back instead

Waiting to see what will happen

His fear was unwarranted

Since the apes begin scaling the trees

After a moment

And end up on a branch

About three dozen feet from where he sits

The male ape puts his head

In the female ape’s lap
And the two whisper something
Back and forth to each other

Until both are asleep

Tarzan watches them drift off

And then takes a deep breath

He looks down

Judges the distance

Then jumps

His hands reaching out

Searching for a vine