Let’s march along pretending we are elephants,
As if the sky rained fire and our last chance for salvation
Was to become these haystack eaters
Whether you are my son, cousin, friend, enemy, acquaintance, or stranger
Let us eat this haystack together, my gray brother in captivity
Ruminating under clouds as hot winds blow around us
Cleaning the moss from one another’s toes with twigs held by trunks
As we attentively listen for the careful beating
Of our own elephants’ hearts, or the hearts of elephants unseen
Circumventing the globe in a single bound
We explodingly return from our voyage
Our legs barely supporting us, like rickety columns erected on the plain
May no man rest carpets on our backs
Nor force us to sound our trumpets
For we talk best in elephantine whispers uttered through mouthfuls of hay