The Elephants Will Miss You

It was a trip I planned to Africa
that didn’t happen, except,
in my imagination I traversed the land
eyes and heart wide open.
The elephants will miss you, said my son.
How will they know I didn’t go?
Lyrics in the song I used to sing:
“It’s in every one of us, to be wise.
Find your heart, open up all your eyes.”
Hello Hello, dear kin I didn’t meet,
dear elephant cousin beings.
“We all know everything
without ever knowing why.
It’s in every one of us, you and I.”
In my imagination I traverse the land.

I sense your gentleness, dear elephants,
the empathy you learn in tight-knit female groups.
Your elephant feelings visibly secrete
in pheromes from your temples.
If only ours showed up so candidly.
You remember every one you’ve met
and every place you’ve ever walked.
Your sensual trunk can breathe
and smell and drink, can feed and even speak.
I see you touch your face for comfort
and stroke your young with tenderness.
When you trumpet your call through the bush,
I tremble in awe. I gaze on your trunk
that lifts a tree with forty thousand muscles,
yet grasps a blade of grass with delicate finesse.

Should we not transform in time
we humans are the ones who’ll disappear.
Will you remember, will you miss us?
Or will we be be missing you, dear elephants.
A hundred years ago, ten million strong
now four hundred thousand, vulnerable.
Today I come in spirit, listening to your wonderful rumbles
and your happy massive splashing at the waterhole.
I move among you giants, humble,
among you kin with brains three times the size of ours.
I promise you my heart wide open.
May we stay our hands that slay you for your tusks.
May we save your home, and ours. Elephants,
may you keep on walking on the Earth we share.

©Susa Silvermarie 2026

It’s in Every One of Us song by David Pomerantz