How many are left? With no real protection, with rampant corruption, with a continuous conduit to China, I wonder how many in this scrum are still alive. The thing I love most about this photograph are skin textures: wrinkles and rubs and stains contrasting with the smooth skin on their ears.
Cheryl Merrill’s essays have been published in Fourth Genre, Pilgrimage, Brevity, Seems, South Loop Review, Ghoti, Alaska Quarterly Review, Adventum and Isotope. “Singing Like Yma Sumac” was selected for the Best of Brevity 2005 and Creative Nonfiction #27. It was also included in the anthology Short Takes: Model Essays for Composition, 10th Edition. Another essay, “Trunk,” was chosen for Special Mention in Pushcart 2008.
She is currently working on a book about elephants: Larger than Life: Living in the Shadows of Elephants.
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14 thoughts on “The Presidential Elephants of Zimbabwe”
http://wp.me/p6vv2v-3J I read a poem elephant skin by Kim and I shared a song, poem I wrote that I feel exemplifies this. so please let me share. I appreciate and admire all those who care for our beloved giants. thank s
barb
ABOUT ELEPHANTS 
Thank you!
http://wp.me/p6vv2v-3J I read a poem elephant skin by Kim and I shared a song, poem I wrote that I feel exemplifies this. so please let me share. I appreciate and admire all those who care for our beloved giants. thank s
barb
Thank you! Lovely.
Thanks for using the photo. You can actually link to other posts by using the links widget.
Cheryl, would you give me permission to use your beautiful photograph to illustrate my poem, please?
Sure, go right ahead, but please give me credit, and maybe a link. Thanks for your kind words!
Thank you!
Elephant skin
Is a map
Of all the places they have been
All the experiences they have had
Ingrained
Etched
In grey wrinkles,
Rubs
And stains.
Infuriating and heartbreaking
Yes.
Beautiful creatures, I remember seeing them in SA
So very glad you got to see them in the wild.