Elephant

When Muriel James (The Power at the Bottom of the Well) and Eric Berne (Games People Play) were writing about Transactional Analysis, I first heard the term "an elephant in the room"  This photo of the elephant in the room is to illustrate a poem that came to me during this period of reading and living.  There are several stories in the photo.  The elephant was a gift from our son while he spent a year on the road as a performer with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.  The birds a attached to the fireplace were a gift when our neice and her husband were assigned to Lakenheath AFB in England.  Finally, the jug on the left says "W. Butler & Co. Ltd.., Wine and Spirit Merchants, Wolverhampton T1"  I bought the jug as an English jug at a antique store.  I know nothing else about the jug.  Here's the poem:

OUR HOUSE

There is an elephant in the living room,
But we don't talk about him.  We walk
Around him as if he were a chair
Or table, although it is hard to
Miss the odor or a swat from his tail
When we get too close.  Returning his
Swat by stroking his ear or patting his
Broad behind frequently is followed by being
Lifted off the floor or tossed against
The wall by his trunk.  When relatives
Come, he tries to be still, and they
Pretend he's not there.  Our closest
 Friends know he likes peanuts, but they
Are careful not to feed him.  His burps
During a party are embarrassing,
And his bellows late at night
Scare the children.

Dan W. Moore