I like to imagine macaque used to love writing poetry but never showed anyone his work, instead keeping it safe in a special box on flower fruit mountain
I like to believe Wukong found it sometime after Macaque died. And inside he first found poems written durring his imprisonment.
Interspersed between poems of hatred and resentment were a thousand apologies of grief and yearning. He switched between begging for forgiveness, to go back to being young and untouched by war, for a second chance to do more than just suggest and find a way to get Wukong to listen, and furiously yelling at Wukong for leaving Macaque with his mistakes, for never being satisfied even when they had it all, for caring more about what his enemies thought about him than what his friends knew to be true.
Then, under all that were two poems written right before the attack they sieged on heaven.
The first poem was for after they won and described Wukong as the center of Macaques world, filling his life with light even on the darkest of days, and asking if Wukong could even comprehend how much he meant to him if the sunset thinks he too is beautiful. Even if not Macaque was content with admiring from afar, reciprocated or not.
The second poem was for after they lost the war. It revealed that while Macaque held out hope they would win he could never truly believe it, but if he were to die fighting alongside his Sun it would be worth it nonetheless. He truly believed that if they lost Wukong would be the only one left alive. Then, he asks if it was worth it if he really cared that much about gaining the universe when he already had the world. And if they somehow made it out not victorious but still in one piece, he asked that they stay on the island for a while. A break was all he really wanted. To be by his king’s side not as a warrior, but as a consort.
Wukong read through each one, and buried them incased in metal next to Macaques body.
