The Mice and the Elephants

Under the roots of an old city, mice had made a nation of holes. In a year of little water, a herd of elephants came through like weather with legs.

Mouse-kingThey do not even see us, and we die of their not-seeing. I will speak to the one who leads.

The mouse-king stood before the elephant-king, which is a kind of courage that looks, from above, like a mistake.

Mouse-kingTake another road to the lake. We are small, but we remember. A day may come when you will want the memory of mice.

ElephantThe forest is wide. We will go around your city. Live.

Later, hunters dug a pit and dressed it as earth. The elephant-king fell, and his herd with him, and ropes learned their names.

ElephantIf the mice still breathe, let someone remember our turning aside.

They came at night, a river of teeth. Rope by rope the city of holes repaid the road. Dawn found the herd standing, and the hunters poorer than they had planned.

Kindness to the small is not charity. It is a storehouse. You may need to open it with your own trapped foot.