I.
elephants are matriarchal creatures traveling
in herds of just women. boys leaving
when they become men, returning
years later in remembrance-perhaps out of gratitude, or
devotion, or maybe because a child never stops craving
a mother’s love.
II.
there is an elephant graveyard beneath a waterfall
in Thailand, water gushing over tons of leathery
skin and collapsed bones.
six died trying to save a calf, gripping
onto the hair of possibility with slippery trunks.
isn't that what women do best? nourish
and lift life even as their own swirls
under tugging currents.
III.
elephants communicate with each other through touch,
scent, and seismic signals, sending
vibrations through footsteps from miles away.
after all, love does not evanesce. it lingers
manifesting in the ground’s heartbeat,
press your ear against the earth and listen.
III.
elephants grieve. they perform simple burials
stroking the dead
carcass’s tusks, covering its body with soil,
leaves, and closing open cuts with mud.
they gather, sighing goodbyes
slowly releasing air from trunks.
V.
calves nurse for at least two years, suckling
for rich milk and security.
once, an elephant gave birth to a stillborn. she
stayed alone with her child for four days, guarding
the calf from hungry lions. even a mother in
mourning continues to love by protecting.
VII.
elephants never forget. brains weighing
eleven pounds with an entanglement
of nerves, holding generational knowledge of safety,
survival, and loss.
it must be a sickly syndrome, a curse
to never forget, the haunting memory
of fallen mothers and sisters, six tons
of flesh each plunging down a milky waterfall,
the heavy thud like a tree toppling in slow motion,
followed by birds scattering, the slamming of
ivory tusks against slabs of rocks and
echoes of their final slow,
heaving breaths.
IX.
sometime years later there will be other elephants,
sons, daughters, and friends, who
will roam and rest by their dead, smooth
their trunks over the broken bodies, search
for wounds to close. they
will mourn and march on,
carrying their loss for a lifetime.
Art Courtesy Youssef ElNahas
