The Orange Monkey - PJ Harvey

A restlessness took hold my brain

And questions I could not hold back

An orange monkey on a chain

On a bleak uneven track

Told me that to understand

You must travel back in time

I took a plane to a foreign land

And said, «I'll write down what I find»

Beneath a mountain’s jagged shelves

Cloaked with snow and shadows sheer

Plates tipped up upon themselves

The pain of fifty million years

And mules and goats were running wild

A happy chaos carried on

And old men and the young boys smiled

And worked until the day was gone

The packs of sandy-coloured dogs

Walked streets that looked like building sites

But piles of rocks and dust and smog

Could not block out a different light

When I returned I ran to meet

The monkey, but his face had changed

He stood before me on two feet

The track was now a motorway