In Sicily’s cradle, so tender and small,
A newborn dwarf elephant—no larger than a doll.
Seventeen pounds of wonder, pure and bright,
Born full of wisdom, with gentle might.
Eyes deep as earth, a soul wrapped in green,
Feasting on leaves where innocence has been.
Clean-hearted vegan in a world grown wild,
A tiny giant with the heart of a child.
Oh, cuddly marvel that time let depart,
You dwell in our memories, whispered from heart to heart.
A love that once roamed where the past softly wept—
The cutest lost baby the Earth ever kept.
(The AI title was “Whispers of the Lost Tusker”)
Like blind men embracing part reality,
Not having seen a tusker in all life,
Each fraught with fractured facts sans verity,
Each telling truth but not sharp as a knife.
Like oaths in courts: I’ll tell the truth, whole truth,
Yet, adulterate facts what all they get,
Freshly fabricated and full of youth
And vitality, long innings to bat.
Poor truth, set to get dumped in time’s dust bin,
Rain shower passing by in mid-day sun,
Truth, eyes and ears half-shut, voice lost in din,
Facts filtered through bias-- a legal fun.
A wolf when once applying for a bail,
And asked for a witness: yea, here’s my tail.
__________________________________
Sonnet (tongue-in-cheek) |27.09.2025| facts, justice, truth
Written: August 05, 2024 For Edward Ibeh Contest
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flourishing strands of rose-colored mist,
Blend in with the gentle rays of dawn gist.
Silver vapors form around the equine nose,
Glistening bark recalls twilight pine as it froze.
As an argentite with a sapphire-like luster,
Inferno rippled amid a tranquil woodland tusker.
Below the canopy that casts a gloomy shadow,
Icy roads dare to swirl and twirl celestial hallow.
Skies atop mountains capped with snow,
Depicting strong sides and silky locks aglow.
The luminous caramel of dawn after dusk,
Luscious hooves gracefully waltz and husk.
On the clay that is entirely icy and faultless,
Bright-dappled alabaster begins dauntless.
A specter of light and dark, elusive and evasive,
Silent in the thrill of speed, coiled, suasive.
Furiously glints through a gap in the hedge,
Pebbles hit the soil, scatter, and wedge.
The rain fell from above in a stony sleet,
The horse grinds to a stop gracefully fleet.
Conducting an ecological survey,
Perched on her glorious, sun-kissed display.
Elephant caparisons none,
their enormous bodies cast black shadows.
Trunks stretch out
to pulling and plucking pleasures.
A grizzled tusker thrusts
its tusks into the mud wall of a rural shrine;
devotees drop
vacuous chants, vamoose.
People are in panic,
dash along dissimilar byways.
A young terrorist is trapped
in the tangle of mammoth legs, and trampled;
not brain, but some cruel seeds
with Afghan patent lie scattered around his skull.
An old
bulwark is bulldozed.
A coconut leaf
is flung at electric wires; fear sparks.
The herd of havoc
uproot a banana farmer’s dream’s corms.
They
forage in the toxic farms.
A rusted pesticide sprayer
is flattened under the gigantic foot.
Trumpet
splinters sleep.
*Kumkis and crackers
drive the elephants away.
They will come back,
for villages grow into woods.
Inhabitants rise
as they lose habitats.
*Kumkis are used for capturing, calming and herding wild elephants or to lead wild elephants away in conflict situations.
First published in The Literary Hatchet
Do you wake up well jungle juggernaut?
If the forest wakes up well, it's to me egal ;
if the forest doesn't wake up well, it's to me egal;
if the tusker has woken up well, what else?
You that breathe with dexterity,
You that walk with dexterity.
Your foot print; fortress for the rodents.
Do you wake up well Elephant?
Mind not their foolhardiness,
they that see you in distance and propose:
come let hunt him with our stick.
Is the tamer of forest not bigger than that we say
let's hunt him with our cudgels?
Bull may be tethered, buffallo may be;
the king is yet uncrowned
that can tether the jungle juggernaut.
Solitude?Come not to us our is not a ghost city.
Fun seeker? Come not alone our canopy is big .
Our fresh oceanic cuisine is surplus and honeymixed.
Fear not when baby whales are washed to the semolina beach
Or when little children are basking on zebra and horses' manes
But jump on a tusker and have a whale of the tamer of forest.
The angels shall alight with the rising of the sun
With awesome fry-pan or leaf-cutter backyards,
Perch on love like butterfly and enjoy our moonlight rock and roll.
serene evening,
waters breathing silently,
lone tusker trumpets
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