212

Infinity in mirrors opposite each other.
Time stopped by fear.  Tears for mothers
we must bury.  Voices laugh in our ears;
their cruelty is our fault, our cross to bear.

Elephants of Kenya

Tusk-stained-by-bark
Left the herd.
Pachyderms -- mothers, calves --

Everyone is coated in red dust
To the tops of their tree-sized legs.
Gray patches show through.

Tusk-stained-digging-through-fruit:
That bull left the herd
Just today

To mourn at the grave
Of his mother,
Near the Summer water.