The Elephant

In every room stands the elephant

Quietly, curiously, patiently, reading the audience

Waiting

Are these its people?

Is today the day its story will be told?

It begs for attention

“I can’t speak! Will someone speak for me?”

The response is resounding and sung in chorus

“No! Get back to where you once belonged!”

Obediently, it takes its familiar place and there it settles

On her chest

Gaining kilos with time as more memories gather

The heaviness of the unspoken words is destroying her

Her hunched back a visual of the weight she carries

So she searches for her Oasis

Bound with all the weight of all the words she tried to say

Chained to all the places that she never wished to stay

Until the day

When the elephant is not only permitted in the room

It is free to say whatever it likes

If it’s wrong or right

It’s all right