Trunk Touching
By Carol Hamilton
It was too much
after all that longing,
finally a trip to the real circus.
The years of dashing
down our street
to watch animal cages
and a lumber-along of elephants
heading to a field to set up
for another show,
and years of the glory-stories
from friends who really
got to go, and now it all
felt like a dream.
The jumble of bodies
and fry-smells swirled
as I really stood there,
crowd-bound,
surrounded by waistlines
and hip bones. The way
was lined with dusty cages
of lions and tigers
and elephants staked down
into the cracked red earth.
Then a touch on my shoulder,
a curl of wrinkled gray and curiosity.
That instant of elephant-touch
is all that remains in memory,
except for the dream state.
Just one small nudge
on a straw-lined path
is the remembered milestone,
a touch to tell me
that sometimes dreams
do come true.
Carol Hamilton has received a Southwest Book Award, Oklahoma Book Award, Cherubim
Award, Pegasus Award, Chiron Review Chapbook Award, David Ray Poetry Prize, Byline
Literary Awards for both short story and poetry, Warren Keith Poetry Prize. She has published
17 books of poetry, legends, and children’s novels. She is a former Poet Laureate of Oklahoma, nominated five times for a Pushcart Prize. Her most recent poetry book is SUCH DEATHS published by the Visual Arts Cooperative in Chicago. She lives in Midwest City, Oklahoma.
