You Can't Rid a Room of an Elephant
Posted: 18 Oct 2019, 20:37
You Can't Rid a Room of an Elephant
by asking her politely to leave
anymore than you can tiptoe
around the subject of addiction
forever.
For now we talk of stocks,
grandchildren, the cost
of socks. When the elephant
glares at us we grow quiet
as a box of stamps,
and recollections of my brother
going face down into a Christmas punch
fly out the window.
She stares at my ivory pendant
ominously.
Behind that grey hill
my brother Joey mutters, "Holy cow,
why can't you leave me alone?"
--his voice trembling
like a kite in a stiff wind.
"I'm not high."
No one is callous enough
to ask about my brother’s breath,
which sours the air
like fermenting pickles.
Instead we slurp our tea, as if there
is no reason to be here
other than the afternoon
green tea.
"I'm not high," Joey repeats
emphatically--but the elephant trumpets
a dismissive snort,
our chairs swaying like buckets
of water in a quake.
by asking her politely to leave
anymore than you can tiptoe
around the subject of addiction
forever.
For now we talk of stocks,
grandchildren, the cost
of socks. When the elephant
glares at us we grow quiet
as a box of stamps,
and recollections of my brother
going face down into a Christmas punch
fly out the window.
She stares at my ivory pendant
ominously.
Behind that grey hill
my brother Joey mutters, "Holy cow,
why can't you leave me alone?"
--his voice trembling
like a kite in a stiff wind.
"I'm not high."
No one is callous enough
to ask about my brother’s breath,
which sours the air
like fermenting pickles.
Instead we slurp our tea, as if there
is no reason to be here
other than the afternoon
green tea.
"I'm not high," Joey repeats
emphatically--but the elephant trumpets
a dismissive snort,
our chairs swaying like buckets
of water in a quake.