Gray Queen

This piece is the result of writing by free association. I wrote down words in alphabetical order as they came to mind: able bodies cull dead elephants from graves high in jungle kingdoms like marshes not open to pry queen ruin so true under velvet will z

I walk to the graves of dead elephants

to pry their secrets from the earth.

A mammoth gray queen,

her skin a dry river bed,

is brought to her knees.

Her zenophobia will not save her.

Her vast jungle kingdom of tall grasses

and twisted leafy trees in ruin.

Salty elephant tears turn the brown earth to marshland

where able-bodied zealots cull sorrows so true

that even velvet darkness cannot hide them.