ElephantsAuthor(s): Jim DanielsSource: The Iowa Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Winter, 1989), p. 80Published by: University of IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20152819 .

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I stand up and push

my idiot buttons.

Which is my job. You bet I work safely.

Elephants

The John smells like the elephant house at the zoo.

So, I must be an elephant standing here

emptying my trunk, pressing

my face into tile.

Elephant jokes were popular once.

Maybe trying to replace ethnic jokes. You couldn't get anyone in here

to listen to an elephant joke.

I can't go much further with this

I'm afraid. I must be an elephant.

I make a headband from paper towels.

I am an Indian. Splashing water on my face

from the bathroom stream. I am on a journey. I am lost. The face in the mirror

is my enemy. I splash the water

and splash the water. I try to breathe.

I am not an Indian.

80

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