When the Blind Elephant Listens to Bach

Lexi Pelle

Her trunk takes the shape of a treble

as if she could step into the song

the way you might step into a familiar

pair of shoes. At Elephants World,

the sleek piano placed in the dirt

between two parched thickets

like the mother I watched pray

in a McDonald’s PlayPlace.

It’s what we don’t know we know

that makes any moment beautiful.

All the cameras hidden in the tall grass.

The painter in the city park keeps

his canvas turned, whatever’s crumpled

in my coat pocket remains the possibility

of a bill. Watching the elephant sway

I swear she could shoulder open a door

between worlds. That there might be

a door, and if there is, it isn’t locked.

LEXI PELLE was the winner of the 2022 Jack McCarthy Book prize. Her work has appeared in Plume, Rattle, Ninth Letter, and The Shore. She is the author of the poetry collection Let Go With The Lights On (Write Bloody Publishing, 2023).