The Elephant's Poem by Albert Kirk Jr.
Once upon a time an elephant wrote a poem about her trunk. She was pleased with the poem, so she showed it to the other animals. The zebra said: "I don't like it. You should write a poem about stripes." The rhinoceros said: "I don't like it. You should write a poem about horns." A fly buzzed in her ear: "I don't like it. You think that my tongue is inferior because your trunk is so long and versatile." The lion yawned: "I don't care for your poem at all. You should write about me. I am king of the jungle." The elephant folded her poem away. She never shared it again, even though it expressed her elephantine thoughts perfectly. And the zebra, rhinoceros, fly and lion understood only themselves, and only a little, and without wonder.
Albert Kirk Jr is from Ayrshire, Scotland. He is querying his debut novel, the first instalment in a YA science fiction epic, and has been writing poetry since August 2020. Twitter: @AlbertKirkJr