Dear finger monkey Candice Kelsey

Candice Kelsey

Dear Finger Monkey

Crawl into my hand, all four inches of you. All 1.4 ounces, climb up my finger. Let green eyes welcome you like the Kirindy Forest of your Madagascar home. You can be my professor, my Dr. Madame Berthe Rakotosamimanana. I will climb bread-leaved trees & find tangled vines for our sleep. Deforestation or not— solitary forager or not— you will not sleep alone. We can huddle, chase, bite, & grab each other while growing impatient for our honeydew larvae sugar snack.

Dear finger monkey, let me stroke your exaggerated lower jaw & congratulate your carving perfect holes in bark for safety. I will join you there. Take my jaw & open it: breathe your life into me, so we can no longer be endangered at best.