I’ve just spent time in both Burma and India, so here are some of Adrian Mitchell’s New Elephant Poems

The Galactic Pachyderm
The elephant stands
among the stars
He jumps off
Neptune
bounces off
Mars
to adventures on
Venus
while his children
play
in the diamond jungles
of the
Milky Way

Tinkling the Ivories
There was an elephant
called Art Tatum
He played a piano
whose teeth were human teeth

Non-event
If an elephant could meet a whale
their understanding would be huge
and they would love one another for ever

Bring Your Own Tankard
How to get permanently drunk in the jungle!
One pint of elephant’s piss

Pride
The elephant
is not proud of being an elephant
So why are we ashamed?

Good Tastes
The vilest furniture in this land
is an elephant’s foot umbrella stand

Love Poem, Elephant Poem
Elephants are as amazing as love
but love is amazing as elephants
Love is amazing as elephants
but elephants are as amazing as love

Elephant Values
Nowhere in the world
is there an elephant bad enough
to make a career in advertising
or to play full-back for Leeds United

You Aren’t What you Eat
The elephant
who’s seldom flustered
despises calming food
like custard
Devouring curry
in a hurry
washed down with
a glass of mustard

Turn Turn Turn
There is a time for considering elephants
There is no time for not considering elephants

The infant elephant speaks:
I got a rusk
stuck on my tusk

From The Apeman Cometh, Adrian Mitchell. 1975