Vignette

She was distressed, she was in pain,
She clung to the pole like a drunk in the rain,
Wailing like a griever
Or an infant with a fever.
Was she hurting for real, or was she a deceiver?

In the trees the chimpanzees
Drank their coffee, quite at ease;
They looked down, and like a frieze,
No one raised a finger.

Soon an officer showed up;
Putting down his coffee cup,
He wrote down the bare essentials,
Name of woman, her credentials,
With a dab of evidentials.

In the trees the chimpanzees
Drank their coffee, quite at ease,
Chattered wildly, slapped their knees,
But not one budged an inch.

So the ambulance arrived,
And the EMTs high-fived
When they saw their patient standing
And alertly reprimanding
The police for heavy-handling.

In the trees the chimpanzees
Drank their coffee, quite at ease,
Clicked on icons, tapped on keys,
And no one moved a muscle.

As she turned and marched away,
A truck turned too, and sad to say,
The grillwork smacked her over flat,
Its tires mashed her, splittery-splat,
Quick-corpsed her like an alley rat.

Up in the trees the chimpanzees
Drank their coffee, quite at ease,
Surfed the web and shot the breeze,
Yet no one even flinched.