Today an Elephant
Today an elephant at Rural King
yes, in the parking lot a pachyderm
placid, matter of fact, maybe smiling,
kids climbing up and down his back in turn.
What’s a nice elephant like you doing
in a place like this American South,
where we buy our mason jars, gardening things
boots and ammo, baby chicks in horse troughs
under heat lamps, fuzzy, yellow, cheeping?
But here you are. A great, grey spectacle
among the house plants and gold Easter bunting
putting monster trucks to shame. Not baleful
at all as I’d expect you’d be, given
the circumstances, no, just bigger than.
