'What the Elephant Sings'

I destroy
what sustains–
the grass, the trees–

as you have
taught me,
little man with a mouth.

I have learned
the thirty words
that enslave.

I spread the world
over my body–
the mud, the sea–

my brother lost his trunk.
He kneels to eat,
and soon he starves.

It has been years
since dressed in blue stones
I carried the queen.


--Lois Marie Harrod