Persona Non Grata

His nostrils flared with 
agitation, sending 
little electrical signals 
upwards to the inverted 
valleys and blue-gray 
ceilings in his skull, 
and 

he realized another 
was reaching for the same 
item he was reaching for 
on the shelf housing 
the three inch screws. 

Dead in his tracks, 
the ape very briefly 
considered slaying the man's offspring 
but the old human-thinking 
whispered caution, 

and he resolved his composure 
quickly and simply 
took the box on the shelf behind his. 

His path to the counter was slow, 
requiring tremendous concentration, 
but he experienced a certain pride 
after the clerk informed him of 
the total and the ape reached 
a large fist into his pants for 
his wallet, then paid, 
then left the store sucking on his teeth. 

The air of the city was humid for October 
and the thick hair on his back and appendages 
glistened with hostility at this inconsideration. 

Things would prove equally inconvenient at home: 
Uniformed workers from the O'Brien Company 
were busy throughout the house, moving to different 
rooms containing boxes, or things being put into 
boxes, and walking past the ape 
in natural disinterest. 

His fist massaged the box of screws 
and Patrick sucked his teeth once more 
knowing he, too, could perform these tasks 
but incapable of producing their complex 
vocalizations. 

And the woman who ran the house, his human sponsor, 
was nowhere to be found, having fled the property 
the afternoon previous. 

So the ape merely stayed in the building's entrance, 
hoping to remember some detail of the life that 
led him here: pleasant summer afternoons, 
tempting butterflies, rain, thunder, the 
vulnerable flesh of a child... 

And some of the workers made fast contemptuous glances 
as they went in- and out of the building past Patrick. 

Patrick idling with the screws, his tissues poisoned 
with enmity, rage sewn throughout his form. 
Patrick the ape. Patrick no longer a man.... 

When the last worker carried the last box from the 
property -- the light switched off and the door locked -- 
Patrick sat on the floor, attempted to balance 
a screw, 
point-first. 

***