Ghost Elephants

In the elephant field
tall green ghost elephants
with your cargo of summer leaves

at night I heard you breathing at the window

Don't you ever think I'm not crying
since you're away from me
Don't ever think I went free

At first the goodbye had a lilt to it—
maybe just a couple of months—
but it was a beheading.

Ghost elephant,
reach down,
cross me over—

From Break The Glass by Jean Valentine. Copyright © 2012 by Jean Valentine. Reprinted with permission of Copper Canyon Press. All rights reserved.