What Elephants Remember fresh*

[Universalchild]

billy suggested making a clean post for the poem I refuse to let die. apologies for the space/possible confusion this is bringing with it

original post is here
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latest version:

What Elephants Remember

Months of sunlight
open envelopes of memory,
the march to ponds Personally I wouldn't use ponds - doesn't really fit.

with softer brush for mother's
broken teeth, years before her ivory
fell to dust like slabs of marble. Like the last two lines of this stanza a lot.

Those tusks,
chiseled from a nimbus I prefered grey cloud to nimbus!
of elephant leather,

never left.
They embrace the tall stalks
that fed her when the fields dried, I like this stanza too.

soothed her hollow gums;
held her head
when death refused.

Those white knives
who carved baobab trunks
with names for thirst

won't stop hiding
in every spread of elephant grass
too thin to shroud

curls of tooth,
bone, how it hurts
to remember and forget. Love it.

Really great poem, very touching. Good remake.