Clade Song 9

There’s An Elephant in the Room

There’s an elephant in the room. It’s in the living room.
Now it’s in the rec room, and before long, the atrium.
After a leisurely stroll through the study, the elephant
meanders through the conservatory and makes his way
down the winding staircase to the wine cellar, but he loses
his footing and tumbles down the stairs! Luckily, the landing
is covered in soft elephants. Are they sleeping? He wonders.
All elephants wonder: are you sleeping? are you sleeping?
How can you, for I am in the room, wonders the elephant,
fully supine and barely noticed, despite the fact that elephants
seldom are either.


 

 

 

Ricky Garni grew up in Florida and Maine, and has worked over the years as a teacher, wine merchant, studio musician, composer and graphic designer. He began writing poetry in 1978, and has produced forty volumes of prose and poetry since 1995. His latest works is A Concerned Party Meets a Person of Interest (2019).