Elecelephony

Once there was an elephant
Who tried to use the telephant
--"Eletelephony" by Laura E. Richards

but now we know they talk by infrasound—
and pachy gossip travels underground,
vibrations picked up through their giant toes.

Reception’s best on ground that’s dense and rocky.
Herds of elephants will sometimes jockey
to be over subterranean flows

of hardened stone. They hang out there and listen
to the oldest land-line in transmission—
or they used to. Guess what’s coming next:

they’ve super-sized the buttons on the cell-phones,
no wires to tangle trunks. So now it’s well-known,
elephants send messages in text.



elephant image
cell phone image
Collection available! Knocking from Inside