The Pachyderm



A picture
Elephant
Even smaller
Than a hopper
Then was huge-
When I was
Small
And I saw
A real beast
In my youth
As it whipped
Dreamily-
Its eyes
Two pools
Of jungle-pain-
Its leafy food
Against
Its pillar-legs.

My thoughts
Were then
About the taming
Of big beasts.

I saw the other
Day
In mirror
My eyes
A forest anguish
Brimming
Just besides
The skin
Around'em
Sun cracked
With fifty years
Of wrestling
With life
And it
Resembled
The pachyderm.


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