Saturday, November 14, 2009

The Darkness of Elephants. By Tarun. For Appicha & a time gone by.



















Some children fear the dark.
Perhaps you did.

Perhaps you were lead
by an elder sister
past the fanged bogeyman.
I was.

In Kerala, when my father grew up,
one way to face the dark,
was to run beneath an elephant,
if of course you had a granddad
who had an elephant
or two.

You are 12.
And an elephant’s huge.
Even now when it comes with dancing flames
at Ayyappa time
and we stand at the balcony and watch
it is, well… huge.

On the one hand an elephant.
On the other the added enticement
of an elephant hair ring
and of course an end to mockery
by those who cannot see the dark in the dark..

Think of the two to three tons
of a grown elephant
and think of a child’s bones
that can snap as easily as twigs.

Scurrying like a mouse
he runs.
Down the dark weight
to the light.
Scrambling among the leaves.

Sometimes the way to face a fear
is replace it with a greater fear.

Sometimes the way to face it
is to face it.


(For those who like sequels – my father didn’t get an elephant hair ring. His fear of the dark gradually fell away. Maybe it was the ‘elephant courage’ that gave him the courage to face railway strikes and a fair share of life, maybe.)

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