Imago Dei

Some images don’t leave you

like the young elephant

slumped in child pose

in the foreground

back legs splayed

one front leg tucked beneath

right ear draping

across the body

like a pewter cape.

The ear, shaped

like the African continent

covering the face of the dead.

They say elephants grieve

They say elephants,

like humans,

can recognize themselves.

The magnificent

carved mirror of life

reflecting Imago Dei,

the illusive white tusk

that curves toward scrub

the pachyderm of creation.

––––––––––––––

Sandra Fees resides in Reading, Pennsylvania, and was named Berks County Poet Laureate in 2016. In 2017, she had chapbooks published by Five Oaks Press and Finishing Line Press. Her recent work appears in the anthologies, Undocumented: Great Lakes Poets Laureate on Social Justice and Bards Against Hunger, Pennsylvania, and is forthcoming in SOFTBLOW and The Aurorean.