There were no elephants in the room
only broken men and women, searching for an easy fix
or an exit.
there were none of those, either.
they left when the elephants did,
when the incident with the arsenic-spiked coffee
made the 5 o’clock news.
after that Clara and Sera had a falling out
and stopped speaking to each other.
after that the roof started to leak.
after that someone found a 12-pack of beer in the basement
and after that no one
remembered the baby
who had fallen asleep in the backseat of David’s car.
When they found him the next day
his hands were black and shriveled
his face was black and twisted in a scream.
like a currant in the sun, someone whispered loudly
and they all stood, solemn and not completely sober
until someone said I thought it was a raisin
then someone else said Hey the baby’s not breathing.
meanwhile the elephants had gone,
the exits had gone, all the e’s had gone,
leaving behind only remnants of men and women
still searching for a way out, a way back