About BIG & little

i.

“Elephants are generally drawn smaller than life size, but a flea is always larger.”

an elephant and a mouse walk into an elevator

the elephant asks ‘where to?’

and the mouse answers ‘off my tail, please’

this makes no sense

only a little

but not in english.

my mother cried during a reality show

i saw her tears and laughed.

what do my mother and a mouse have in common?

ii.

“(and when i say we there

I mean the people

Who believe in the possibility

Of something better than

The inequality and cruelty and wilful indifference

Of the world

And the society

In which we presently live

[…])

an eleven year old girl

said no thank you, please

no more cake, i am full

the spoon kept coming

and when she wouldn’t open her mouth

it splashed her in the face.

she wiped her face with a green handkerchief

before it went down in flames.

iii.

“Say it’s only a paper moon

Sailing over a cardboard sea

But it wouldn’t be make believe

If you believed in me”

we don’t have language

to explain how i feel when i see a stranger across from me on the bus from new york city to great barrington massachusetts

and i want to tell her i love her

i love the way she doesn’t eat toast

without butter

or

apricot jam

i love how she won’t build a fire

for fear of it never going out.

i love how her sunglasses reflect the sunset the berkshires have shared

with a people who stole

and gentrified

before it was cool.

we don’t have language to explain

but what if we did