THE ELEPHANTS OF PRAGUE

Prague is a resistance by existing;

a Praha-hahahaha in the face of adversity.

Among the plague columns, springtides

blossoming with Soviet tanks, defenestrations,

and Arcimboldo daubing fruity monstrosities

to stave off Rudolf’s melancholia, I think

of the elephants.

Baby was the first. Arriving at the zoo

from Sri Lanka in 1933.

In the 1970s it was Sundari and Kadíra.

Now it is Tamara and Janita.

It’s pleasant to think of elephants; ears like fans,

tree-trunk legs, clever python noses:

a Baroque emblem for a Baroque city of emblems:

Fortitudo, and the city as a howdah

or obelisk.

But I still vividly remember 2002

watching on television as the rains refused

to stop and the relentless waters

of the Vltava kept rising over Troja.

The Nantes of the animals.

Elephants are surprisingly good swimmers.

Kadíra paddling to keep in one place,

Tantalus, just a grey dome like a rock

and periscope held high.

Even elephants have limited endurance

and Kadíra was not a friendly elephant

to be loose in a friendly city.

Shot from a helicopter. A tragedy

and martyrdom in a city that has known many.