Big Dumb Elephant

I was that big dumb elephant in the room.
I stood there and took it,
pretending you didn't see me,
but I saw you.
I saw you for what you were.
You spoke and thought I couldn't hear,
and now the ears of my memory
are playing the sounds of your words
and your laugh.

Ha. Ha.
The elephant in the room,
deaf, blind, and dumb.
I remember, I remember.
I can hear you know,
I can speak you know.

But I stood there,
mute, deaf, dumb,
and took it.
I took it like the circus elephant,
a flank tougher than than the whip
but a soul as delicate as the inside of a flower.

And sometimes,
in the place my thoughts travel to,
I see her look over and give me a kiss,
and for a second
I allow myself to feel human.