Revision

 

Elephant Milk

 

At the elephant orphanage

the greedy baby elephants ran out,

eager to devour the big bottles of milk.

Some of them trumpeted their displeasure

when their bottle was empty.

 

A bystander asked what kind of milk they drank.

The keeper said, “They had to design a formula,

to be as close to elephant mama’s milk as possible,

because it’s hard to milk an elephant.”

I wouldn’t want to try it. 

 

Consider Peter Baraza, a 21-year-old farmer

who got nearly a pint of milk from an elephant

before she realized it wasn’t her suckling calf.

The angry mama tossed Baraza into the air,

and then chased him up a nearby tree.

 

With her strong trunk, she uprooted the tree

with Baraza clinging for dear life to its branches.

A crowd of screaming women distracted

Mama Elephant, allowing Baraza to be rescued.

He suffered broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder.

 

Nope, I wouldn’t try to milk an elephant.

 

(from Chicago Tribune October 29, 1998)