We all want to be wanted, slow elephants
do too but sometimes
when there are no other animals
around, peeking out from teller windows
or smirking in swivel desk chairs,
we all want to be wanted,
but we have to be alone with our tusks
and giant ears and we have to look
at our self in the reflection of the lake
that is still because no sexy gazelle
is organizing itself on the other side
in the inlet sending ripples
and no sublime flamingo is one leg
stilted bobbing its beak in and out
of the water sending ripples: then
the sorrow of being alone breeds
loneliness and loneliness breeds
suffering until from deep in the heart-belly
a mammoth laughter rumbles up
through the hull and up the neck
and into the trunk and finally trumpets out
into the air: I am here! and there is
not want! but for the absence of loving
one self, fat happiness of a shapely elephant
and all hoorah!
