The Pachyderm

A picture

Elephant

Even smaller

Than a hopper

Then was huge-

When I was

Small

And I saw

A real beast

In my youth

As it whipped

Dreamily-

Its eyes

Two pools

Of jungle-pain-

Its leafy food

Against

Its pillar-legs.

My thoughts

Were then

About the taming

Of big beasts.

I saw the other

Day

In mirror

My eyes

A forest anguish

Brimming

Just besides

The skin

Around'em

Sun cracked

With fifty years

Of wrestling

With life

And it

Resembled

The pachyderm.