Elephants

The long legs that stretch to the heavens like the cattails by the river.

The knees, large as wheelbarrows riding up mountains with gray stone in them.

Ears that flap in the wind like sails of a pirate ship, tattered and warn.

Sharp and weathered, drooping from the skull, like stiff ribbon on a package, tusks.

Like broken charcoal, tents jut from the old rounded backs and point to the blackness above.

Trunks that extend to the skies with curled tips like grape vines.

The sky burns red like the eyes of a panther.
The clouds, cold and dark like the black death.