AQUATELOS A Thesis Presented to the Faculty ... - Cornell University

11. GEOPHAGY
The elephants kneel
before the cave gouged
by unknown scores of ancestors
kneeling to dip the trunk
again in precious mud
ingest the bitter knowledge
of survival, the animosity
of the great watcher Time
They march for days
each year to the black space
tucked like a crypt cell
in the mountain’s body
and kneel before squeezing
into the narrow track
to the eating-place
the medicines they know
far from suns
nearer to bones
to earth that knows 2,190,000,000,000
days, that is 189,216,000,000,000,000
seconds, or
94,608,000,000,000,000 thoughts,
567,648,000,000,000,000 feelings,
each with its singular iris
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