huge hunger sweeping forests / never stopping goddesses
/ heavy footed looking for pieces of the whole
wondering / how long /
this mad weight / thick iron bars and pacing behind them

/ again again against/

heavy brush body against / again again /
skin against / nearly silent / whispering anger
and heavy heavy work / this keeping the mind /

not forgetting water /
not forgetting / direction /
this unstoppable plod and precognition
/ always knowing /something must be done / always knowing /
something
can be done \ always knowing
continue /

human kind
kill our kind so sure we want to live /so sure we live by killing / kill
until alone / safe?  / satisfied?/

with our sorrows we only prick the elephant’s godlike skin /
only stun great hearts remembering / paths travelled together
across deserts trumpeting /

I will worship elephants —
/ the mountains they graze / breathing air too thin for keepers
the thoughts and dreams of elephants / their tears /
see from the angle of their eyes / long lashed and terrible / how irrelevant
the bubble brains /the spiteful ghosts lagging behind them

breathe deep my ribs / click and crackle /
open my slow elephant eye / my liquid dark / my unlit rainbow
/colour all around / waiting for droplets of light

Poem and drawing by Jo Mariner