Raw Goods Inventory

Elephant

elephant Nickel-gray or computer consoled, not white or a failure as one might think when it appears on the return mailing address label sent by the African Wildlife Foundation, which urges: “Spread the word about the peril.” (Dense plantings of shrubbery provide safe areas.) Too large an idol to hide from the rest, it takes residence in one’s brain as the serene center aimed for in classical Hindu meditation. Several lifetimes are required to untangle the self. Said to inhabit certain remarkable capacities (such as insensitivity to heat or cold, and though ears are key to ventilation, passage through the Pyrenees is not an option) it walks noiselessly despite bulk. A dutiful mourner with its own funeral march, herds fifteen to thirty can’t bring back the mammoth, though several in Siberia were found wholly preserved in ice. The fashion now is 64 to save, use the ground tusk powder only in dire situations. Ticks, as the red-billed oxpecker suggests, can bring down a good dog though not when the bird is perched on the elephant’s high back. Just as, to boost a career, having one sit on one’s desk is good luck. 65 ...