my first wife and i are captured by neighbor tribe, cannibals.
i escaped across the river.
my wife, she can't swim, so she eaten.
second wife stepped on viper and dies.  it was bad luck to be married to mr. oti.
i am captured with six others by baschiele tribe. they sell us to a big white man.
the big white man brings us to st. louis, where they make our village at the 1904 world's fair.  they have us livin' in these little huts like we're livin' in africa.  people behind bars staring at us.  we told not to look at them.  to just go about our normal lives.  what the hell they talkin' about.  ?
at night we're done bein' "savages" we go over the wall into the rosebud.  we drank and laughed until the sun come up.  and then we savages again.
i hear you not so old as you looking. you just foolin' everybody. what happen, you get madjembe?
worms.
you want to get a cold root beer?
who said that?
come on little man.
hurry.
another white man come to my country and say he want to talk to me.
then i am in the monkey house at "philadelphia zoological park." three thousand people show up my first day.
it stinks. the monkeys, they do some tricks.  i throw spear.  i wrestle with kowali, she is orangutan.  they have me file my teeth like a cannibal.
when i'm not playing with monkeys - - they want me to run to bars in my cage with teeth to scare little children.
war between english and dutch people had broken up kingdom.
i leave zoo. go here. go there. everything okay. but i alone.
you'll see little man, plenty times you be alone. you different like us, it's gonna be that way. but i tell you a little secret i find out. we know we alone. fat people, skinny people, tall people, white people.  they just as alone as us.  but they scared shitless.
not a thing wrong with being alone.  no sir.
i think about the river i grew up on. it would be good to sit by my river again.
always ready. always ready. filamena, mr. benjamin.
you can find your own way home, can't you?
the st. charles avenue line to napoleon.
we pray to bembe.  the creator of all living things.  she retired after all that work.
i like birds that can't fly. they're easy to eat.
you get used to it.
i come to say goodbye. i'm going away.
i don't figure that out yet. i will send you a postcard when i get to there.
we're not friends anymore. that's what happens with tall people.