Two Poems by Sally Miller return to 2010 talent show

Elephant Love Song

The dermis of a pachyderm is thick, hair sprigged and rough,
But elephants, for one, believe the tissue wondrous stuff.
Though rather badly wrinkled skin, it's sensitive and tough
And offers each humongous beast protection quite enough.

An elephant can call a mate across ten thousand feet
By sending out a rumbling sound that humans cannot meet.
They come together purring like two kittens, soft and sweet
And start to move in concert to a pachydermal beat.

The elephants entwine their trunks, caress each other's side.
They flap great ears and slowly dance in shuffle, four-step, glide.
In time the loving message gets beneath each thick, gray hide
And both the massive mammals choose together to abide.

New World Mystery

“In fourteen hundred ninety-two,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”
At least that's what most histories said
Four hundred years past he was dead.

Now teachers say that Vikings bold
Reached Newfoundland in days of old
About four hundred years before
The Spanish throne sent Chris ashore.

The difference is that Gutenberg
Set up a press for printed word
So folks back home heard Chris's news:
Spice Islands Found by Ocean Cruise!

Before that only scholars few
Saw Lief had started Village New.
In rough stone house, by roaring fire,
He told of saga, self and sire.

The latest evidence to come
Is that some Chinese had begun
To cross Pacific blue and fine
In B.C. thirty one and nine.

So red and yellow, black and white
We all are imports to this site.
And what will future digs reveal?
Perhaps some Martian Spaceship's keel.

return to 2010 talent show