NEPHART.COM

What is your favorite animal?

She called me elephant.

Not as a joke.

Not by accident.

A name like that

is a hand on the chest,

checking if something is alive.

Elephants remember.

They don’t rush.

They love with their whole weight.

I grew into the word.

Quietly.

Skin thick, heart open.

I could have been fox,

sharp with excuses.

Jackal,

laughing at hunger.

Rooster,

loud about nothing.

But she chose elephant.

Which means

she saw something worth keeping

and still didn’t keep it.

We walked together

without a jungle.

No freedom.

No stampede.

Just circles.

She said

I like you

the way people say

don’t move.

She said

I can’t leave him

the way doors say

almost.

She said

if only I met you earlier

and time pretended not to hear.

So I stood there.

Large.

Unmistakable.

Unchosen.

An elephant

doesn’t beg.

Doesn’t chase.

It waits.

And when it leaves,

the ground remembers.