Elementary
–Naomi Shihab NyeAt the 100-year-old National Elk Refugenear Jackson Hole, we might ask,How long does an elk live?Who’s an old elk here?We’d like to spend timewith an elder elk please.Tell us how to balance our liveson this hard edge of human mean,mean temperatures, what we do and don’twant to mean.Closing the doorto the news will only make youstupid, snapped my friendwho wanted everyone to know as muchas she did. I’m hiding in old school bookswith information we never used yet.Before I drove, before I flew,before the principal went to jail.Sinking my eyes into tall woodenwindow sashes, dreaming of lightarriving from far reaches,our teacher as shepherds,school a vessel of golden hope,you could lift your daily lessonin front of your eyes,stare hard and think,this will take mesomewhere. O histories of India,geological formations of Australia,ancient poetries of China, Japan,someday we will be aligned in a placeof wisdom, together.Red deer, wapiti, running elk risingabove yellow meadows at sundown.An elk bows her head. In the companyof other elk, she feels at home.And we are lost on the horizon now,clumsy humanity,deeper into the next century than wecan even believe,and they will not speak to us
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash