"...They call me savage, monster on four legs,
To feed their vanity — a master race
Of whose learning and liquor I have tasted;
Two-legged gods, whose boots I licked and feet kissed,
Only to find that, beneath their fair skin,
They are as seedy as I am misshapen.
And, as any native monkey will tell you:
Learning and liquor are peanuts when bartered
For land and liberty.
And now, armed with language and skilled in cursing —
To outsmart this learned philistine whose skull
I cannot crush, nor can I burn his books —
Cursing shall be my joy ’til he be driven to sea,
From whence he came — and I regain sovereignty."
With affectionate thanks to Edgar Rice Burroughs and his Mucker, Frank Frazetta, and Victor Sasson ("Caliban on Language")
