With Elephants

from travelblog.org

This delightful poem, With Elephants by   Bruce Moody,  came to my inbox this morning from Poem for the Day by Larry Robinson, who collects and shares wonderful poems with his mailing list. Checking out the poet, I discovered an intriguing person who wrote a memoir about homelessness titled Will Work for Food or Money.

I adore elephants, and this description made my heart leap with delight. Thought you would enjoy it. A nice change from tiresome old Crone Crunchies !

With Elephants

With elephants everything

volumes

down.

A cascade of cliff

lumbering

on four limber pillars.

A fog of stone

always slowly

moving west.

A strolling Niagara, yes.

Wearing a wardrobe

of loose-fitting determination,

she looms

her great sweet

buxom

daunt.

You have felt their stone-tough,

bristly,

sensitive

proboscis.

It snouts around like the foot of a snail.

until it clamps the morsel of crackerjack,

which it,

like an undersea thing,

daintily,

and confidently

and insouciantly

and speedily

imparts

into its heart-shaped maw.

Bad for the tusks?

Well, elephant dentists and nutritionists say

Elephants must eat

for their health and satisfaction,

every day

of popcorn

a silo.

So who am I to lecture an elephant –

vegan as she is –

about weight-loss?

Elephants remember

to diet on whole savannahs

and toss their massy heads about,

making gales with their ears

and, with their Cyrano noses,

announce ––

stand back! ––

Triumphals!

- Bruce Moody