This is a transcript of a poem performed at the MLK Celebration in Ashland written by Southern Oregon University student Ahsante San
kofa Foree.
ELEPHANTS
We declare it time to address the elephants in the room
We come from a house this house where we fail to unpack the pack of pachyderms packed wall to wall
Stampeding over couch thru your quaint breakfast nook
Crashing into your mama’s nice china
While they crush bodies
Our bodies Our Black bodies Our Trans bodies Our Queer bodies
Too many bodies
And we hear the thundering of the elephant feet
Feel our faces wet from the splashing blood
And we have the audacity to look up and say
It must be raining
Worse still these elephants will gore you with their tusk
Witcho grandmama’s grandmama’s bones crunching beneath them
They got folks riding on their backs that will defend them
They say that we Underfoot like tall grass
Live in a fantasy
These elephants wouldn’t hurt anybody “Haven’t you seen dumbo”
They say while a riding atop ancient masses of silence
Living in peace wandering through the hallways and bedrooms that are “Their native habitat”
They will say
You are a poacher
When you try to kill their beast Before it kills you
Tell you climb Tell you climb, as trunk wraps around your little brother’s neck and snaps it
Say it was your little brothers fault
Say he was troubled Say he was resisting Say he was dangerous
Tell me.
What can a little boy do to an elephant?
And I know any day might be the day we pay for knowing
That queer civil rights don’t end with legalizing marriage
That My body is not mine if the legislation says so
That thin privilege exists.
that there is no such thing as a good cop
But before I become strange fruit to pop under 8 tons of indifference
I will ask
What is an elephant doing in my living room?
