Elephant in the Dock

Pillary stocks at the gallows tree dock

the crowd grew impatient the clouds threatened rain

Elephant arrived at the Constable's side,

with her trunk locked in shackles, and her ankles in

chains

"All rise, all rise, his Honor presides,"

the Judge took the bench to the village brass

cavalcade,

Elephant refused to swear the oath,

[Elephant:]

"I don't know anything about truth,

but I know falsehood when I see it,

and it looks like this whole world you've made"

Good of our chaplain to sail Kalispell Bay

And now down on his marrow for this old fool to pray,

"Lord, for sixty-so years I've surrendered my love,

to emblems of kindness, and not the kindness they were

emblems of,

Trammels and rings, with the strength of old strings,

and some hobble skirt spring, by the old problem

caught,

Children, sometimes I think all our thoughts are just

things,

and then sometimes think things are just thoughts,"

and the rabble rang

"Hang! the Elephant must hang! the Elephant must hang!

Hang! the Elephant must hang! the Elephant must hang!"

"A thirteen coil knot for the samovar pot! Scottish

Oatcakes in haversacks each to its grave

This mock trial can no more determine my lot,

than can driftwood determine the ocean's waves,

Brandish your ropes and your boards, and your basket-

hilt swords,

but what is there can punish like a conscience ignored?

Yes, my body did just as you implied,

while some ghost we'll call 'I' idly watched through

its eyes,"

and the jury sang,

"Hang! the Elephant must hang! the Elephant must hang!

Hang! the Elephant must hang! the Elephant must hang!

Hang! the Elephant must hang! the Elephant must hang!

Hang! the Elephant must hang! the Elephant must hang!"

I feel it stealing now

All adrift fathoms down