Poets sound out over miles
Elephant Love
Fourteen thousand pounds
Shift silently
Over ruts worn deep
By the lure of water.
A behemoth link
In the tail to trunk chain,
Slinking under night’s cover
Toward the wide, gentle sea.
Each massive foot,
Distinct as a thumbprint,
Hints at treetops and weather,
Speaks of dry and cracked earth.
Using sub-human decibels,
He sounds out over miles,
Summoning kin to the water,
To its cool and its drinking,
To its diving and bathing,
To its feasting and mating.
His way there is slow,
Just five miles in an hour.
Imagine the courage.
One hundred thousand muscles
And nerves all bundled together,
Trumpeting the call
To elephant love.
Like several others featured during this National Poetry Month Poemapalooza, this poem appears in LIFE IS A VERB, with thanks to the poet.
Poets take us to five mile-per-hour love, a ton of love, nerves all bundled together, trumpeting in the forest. Imagine, just imagine, the courage. We all, in our own way, and in our own time, have made our way there to the sea, lured by that water.
