Why is The Elephant
uncaged, all of a sudden?
Who does he think he is,
just standing there
and taking up his space
and sucking all the air
out of our tiny room..
And swinging on us
with his mighty trunk,
from left to right?
What is he doing?
Looking for a fight?

It’s true,
The Elephant,
at last,
broke free..
but there is no
hostile intent
in shaking of
his tusky ivory.
He’s overjoyed..
because at last
he now remembers..
what it means to live.
To swing his trunk
and take his space
and freely breathe.

He isn’t here
to make the others
feel that he is larger
than they guessed..
to make the others
painfully consider
and rethink..
that, maybe some day,
he just happened
to be leaning
up against a gray
and wolfish wall..
that drained
all color out of him,
within a-many blinks..
but now he is uncaged
and is his color back?
What do you think?

The color that I see
when I behold him
is the same
as it once was..
upon a day
when he was
happy..
Pink.