Elephant in the Room

 

 

Isn’t this grand, love! just we two,

   Here, alone, in this room together;

Free—free to talk…just talk, me and you,

   Going beyond, dear, oh, well past the weather;

As if our true hearts and souls were as one,

   So we two need never assume;

Oh, just talk about everything under the sun…

   But the elephant in the room.

 

Oh, we both know it’s there, it is always there,

   Though we’ve not felt its hide brush our skin;

Yet it looms here between us, we both well aware

   That, once more, it has squeezed itself in.

There!…the stock smell of peanuts…the elephant breath!

   Oh, dear!—what a beastly perfume!

Shh! don’t talk (let’s commune) talk would sure be the death

   Of the elephant in the room.

 

Truth is, we’ve become so attached to the dear

   We would miss all its sweet bulk between us;

And (we’re as close as we ever were) thus never fear

   This apartheid should somehow demean us.

So we talk and we talk…talk our very souls bare

   —The bare soil in which our love does bloom!

From which, out of respect, we say nothing, au pair,

   Of the elephant in the room.

 

(In the room the lovers come and go

   Not talking of the elephant so.)

 

Dear, its skin is so thick, so elephantine,

   It can hide all its secrets inside,

While we two, for our talk (of a thin-skinned design)

   Have, of course, from each, nothing to hide.

So we talk and we talk…our two fluttering hearts

   Making two open books which presume

To touch on all things, as sweet time departs…

   But the elephant in the room.

 

Oh, we love it—in ALL its immensity,

   For the elephant never forgets

Its role in our sweet-talk, our intimacy,

   Or its place in our frank tête-à-têtes .

Thus, between us, we two always know (though a shock)

   Who is who, but more, just who is whom.

How ingratious of us would it then be to talk

   Of the elephant in the room.

 

Then, let us not forget, dear, just why it is we

   All the more love our dear pachyderm:

That its very heavyness on you and me

   Does, our faith in it, quite reaffirm.

So let’s pledge, love, to keep it between us (as one)

   To re-meet here—when shall our love bloom!

And talk, sweet, of everything under the sun…

   But the elephant in the room.

 

(In the room the lovers come and go

   Not talking of the elephant so.)