Shoulder/pain

in a small village by the jungle
there lived a scraggy boy who
lisped - got stuck mid-sentence.

baboons used to beat him everyday
yet he never cried. blood and snot
streamed from his nose, still the
boy smiled.

the elders told him he'd learn
to outwit them if he excelled in
his studies.

he became so engrossed, stopped
moving out of his home, and slowly
the baboons forgot about him,
except for one.

this baboon really missed the boy
and sympathized with his condition
yet it had tortured him the most.

over time, the boy became a man
and got engaged to a woman.

they broke up, and suddenly the distraught
man appeared in front of the baboon's house.

alone and pitiful, he yelled "Please beat me
up! I want to die!" - it had never seen him
cry, and they hugged tightly.

they became friends and enjoyed
each other's company for a long while.

one day, under the shade of a tree,
on a humid, summer afternoon - the
baboon died of old age while the man
slept on its shoulder.

when he woke up, the man laughed
his guts out for days and nights.

he became a veterinarian eventually and
treated animals for the rest of his life.