Wednesday, September 25, 2019

1036. Unloading The Elephants - David Wagoner

.
Out of the sliding doors
Of steel-gray boxcars
The trunks come groping
Through the gray morning.
Where are we now?
The greatest show
Is on earth, trumpeting
Down the steep ramps and bracing
Forelegs against the heavy
Heavenly bodies
They so carefully balance
Like the commandments 
Shouted to massive heads, to ears
Pondering old orders,
Older than canvas.
Why are you keeping us?
In a huge row, seventeen
Elephants. Why must we learn
From you? What have we done
To be so weighted down?
Trunks raised, they shuffle forward

To the long parade.

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