67. tyke, the circus elephant, finally leaves us to our own devices
for years the trainer had been reflected in the eyes of tyke, a lonely elephant who rode in the dirty circus boxcars for thousands of kilometres, & who was forced to perform unnatural & humiliating tricks, one day she turned & crushed him to death, as the dumb audience rushed their children for the exits, it was her greatest performance yet, the police arrived as she broke free onto the streets, her enraged grey trunk swung at the sun, as she was shot to death in her little bonnet by a total of eighty-six bullets, but she just kept standing to remind us of her dignity, her old weathered body exploded inside by steel, a dark & wild blood streamed out from a hole beneath her eye, it takes a lot for us to bring an elephant down, to set her dying heart on fire, an organ so big, it could bring a world to its knees to cry, in shame, but not this one tyke, not this world |
