Elephant Love

Fourteen thousand pounds
Shift silently
Over ruts worn deep
By the lure of water.
A behemoth link
In the tail to trunk chain,
Slinking under night's cover
Toward the wide, gentle sea.
Each massive foot,
Distinct as a thumbprint,
Hints at treetops and weather,
Speaks of dry and cracked earth,
Using sub-human decides,
He sounds out over miles,
Summoning kin to the water,
To its cool and its drinking,
To its dividing and bathing.
To its feasting and mating,
His way there is slow,
Just five miles in an hour.
Imagine the courage.
One hundred thousand muscles
And nerves all bundled together,
Trumpeting the call
To elephant love.

(Liz Granfort)