I opened The New York Times
the headline:
“Huge Conservation Effort Aims
to Save Vanishing Architect of the Savanna.”
First sentence:
“If elephants disappear other African species will follow too.”
Soon no wild elephants on the face of the earth.
1930—10 million
Today—650,000.
All because humans lusted for ivory.
“Yes, ” I thought to myself,
“elephants are better than humans.
more noble, more peaceful, more wise.
One day all humanity shall be punished
for the killing of elephants.”
Grief seeped into my dizzy heart.
The train rattled on.
No good.
Leaping up I proclaimed,
“ELEPHANTS ARE BETTER THAN HUMANS.
MORE NOBLE, MORE PEACEFUL, MORE WISE.”
Stares, no applause.
“ONE DAY ALL HUMANITY
SHALL BE PUNISHED FOR THE KILLING OF ELEPHANTS.”
There it was.
Now everyone back to chatting, dozing, reading,
finished with watching
another mental case on the D train.
Then:
the memory of frozen winter afternoons
when I absorbed the steamy aromatic Elephant house
at the old Prospect Park Zoo,
at home there.
I didn’t want to cry, not now,
not in front of all these people.
so jumped up into, “WHAT NOW? ”
No response,
even from my own inner anguish.
Then: Parkside Avenue
lunging out
the vomit already
splashing on the filthy pavement.
Charles Chaim Wax
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/shadows-beyond-the-bodies/