The Old Elephant and Sirius
Image via Wikipedia
Dust rose
into the air as the elephant shuffled along,
With every
step she sang a traditional song,
A song she’d
heard long ago as an elephant child,
A song she
hadn’t thought about in quite awhile,
“As I travel
on my way I’ll chant every word,
I’m too old
to stay with the elephant herd,
The Elephant
Graveyard will be my resting place,
No more
lions or crocodiles will I face,
Death is
close, I can feel it in my bones,
I must
remember the placement of the stones,
Thousands of
my ancestors have come this way,
I must join
them, perhaps this very day,”
A gruff
voice interrupted the elephant’s reverie,
“Where are
you going? You can walk with me,”
She had not
noticed the wild dog loping by her side,
He asked, “Do
you need a friend in whom you can confide?”
He’d heard
elephants go somewhere when they’re old or sick,
He was sly,
that wild dog, and he thought of a trick,
“I only want
to help you,” he said, “don’t get me wrong,
But didn’t I
just hear you chanting a song?”
He urged her, “Perhaps your destination you’d like to share,”
“If I told
you I’d have to stomp you,” she said with an angry stare,
He knew she
was old and he lost his sense of fear,
But he made
a mistake when he thought she couldn’t hear,
He mused
aloud, “I know why she’s walking here all alone,
If I follow
her, I could discover a lot of precious bones,
A veritable
treasure trove I might share with my pack,
They’d have
a lifetime supply, no bones would they lack,”
She listened
carefully as he made his evil plan,
He didn’t
care if it was the elephants’ sacred land,
By then she’d
heard enough from that greedy dog,
She hurled
him far, just like he was a tiny log,
Some say he
never returned, nor did he ever die,
Some say he
watches for bones way up in the sky,
They call
him Sirius, the dog that once took flight,
Sirius, the
Dog star, the brightest star at night.
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