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

[Bailiff]
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

[Crowd]
Hang! The elephant must hang! The elephant must hang!
Hang! The elephant must hang! The elephant must hang!

[Elephant]
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!

[Elephant]
I feel it stealing now
All adrift fathoms down