Photo by Eden Constantino on Unsplash
by Jeff Friedman
You can’t fool the elephant. He can smell the sweat just beginning to break your skin and the fear oozing out of you. He can smell where the landmines have been planted and step nimbly through the field. He can smell the path his brothers and sister took to escape, and he can smell the trail home. He lifts his trunk and bellows to warn others away. He can smell you well before you arrive and long after you’re gone.
JEFF FRIEDMAN has published eleven collections of poetry and prose. His work has appeared in American Poetry Review, five successive times in Best Microfiction, and in The New Republic. He has received an NEA Literature Translation Fellowship and numerous other awards.
