every part of the elephant in poetry

Three mystics
of various traditions and
three agnostics
from varied cultural backgrounds
were blindfolded and lead
into a small room
with an elephant in the middle
then both groups were asked
to describe what was sitting there
depending on the part they grasped.

One mystic touched the trunk
said this thing must be a snake.
The second touched the tusk
said this thing be a spear.
The third touched its backside
said this must be a rocking boulder
giant and yet apt to shake.

At that point, the blindfolded agnostics
got the fuck up and ran away because
those are all very dangerous things
if you’ve got any goddamned sense at all
just before the smug and so-sure mystics
were trampled to death by the animal.

Here’s the thing:
they were wrong, they were all wrong
each mystic was wrong what the elephant was
from the little slice of their experience
none of the agnostics learned what it was either
but they knew enough when something sounded
crazy, deadly and ridiculous
got out while the getting was good
lived to be doubtful about things another day.

I may have never had the
insane comfort of believing that there’s magic
that it’s on my side
but I’ve never been tramped
by the mad uncontrollable elephant of faith
I’ve lived to see another day and
thank God for that.

Last updated April 21, 2016