"Elephant Ocean"

The ocean was wrinkled
like an elephant's skin wrinkles
when its trunk reaches for the poem
about the ocean and the elephant
that just stayed stinky, slimy
and hard to grasp
with the long sensitive snout
of the elephant by the ocean
she didn't think looked like her
at all but laughed to hear
the poet did but couldn't turn it
into a poem, just ink on a napkin,
paper wrinkled like time.

Now we can hear the stink ticking
like a bomb, creating suspense
and sudden light before the sound
wrinkling ear drums roaring ocean.

                    — Tom
        December 28, 2006

That was composed while sitting in Ralphs La Jolla with dear friends, musing on Portico's elephant/ocean metaphor and her attempts to write a poem around it. There's a Golden Spoon yogurt outlet right there in the supermarket; the napkin happened to be sitting there at the table when the rest of us non-napkins sat down.

Om Namah Shivaya!