Elephant Bathing

...And yet the thought of getting there is not unlike
A great lone tusker taking the plunge
His vast grey bulk sinking below the riverline
Against a clear black sky,
Till there is no more of him to see
Than a single tusk,
White as a quarter-moon in mid-July,
Before the coming of a cloud.” (‘Elephant Bathing’, ‘page 18)

... I think of all those promises I made to my ears
Which my tongue did not keep,
And even now, as I speak,
My words begin to smart,
Their echoes deepening, as if these walls were closing in,
And no space large enough… (‘Wind Chime,’ page 49)

Elephant Bathing, Poems by Anand Thakore, Poetrywala, Mumbai, 2012, Pp 80, Rs 150