after the Life of Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratus
The tusks of the Marsh Elephants
are dark, fibrous & difficult
to carve, given their many sun-
ken cavities & other knots
resisting incision. Mountain
Elephants’ tusks are far smaller
& brighter & easier to work.
But the tusks of Plains Elephants
are the finest & the whitest,
allowing human hands ample
volutes to execute designs.
Indians consider the Marsh Kind
stupid & deaf, & the Mountain
Kind crafty & malevolent,
as opposed to the Plains Kind, said
to be tractable & fond of
mimicry.
These latter pachyderms, locals
claim, can write, dance, sway to music,
leave the ground & slowly ascend
into the air.
Apollonius saw the El-
ephants cross the Indus (about
thirty of them, I imagine.)
As for Lionesses, it seems
they sometimes take stud leopards
for lovers on the open plain
& then retreat to the hills, ripe
in womb, where if their offspring bears
spots, they proceed to conceal them,
suckling them in secret thickets.
Their husbands, discovering this,
then tear these bastard broods of pups
to shreds.
In search of its cub, a Tigress
will go as far as the Red Sea
& howl on the beach as the dhows
recede.
I saw this seal at Aegeae
in a cage, on public display,
so wild with grief for her dead calf
(born in captivity) that (though
seals be known for voracity)
she refused to eat any squid
for over a week—and for me
it all became allegory.
