Two versions of Blind Elephants – a poem by Karen Bovenmyer, The Blind Elephants of Io read by Patsy Prince and the music that inspired it, written and performed by Zac Gvirtzman. BSL interpretation by Martin Fox-Roberts
A perfect example of the spirit of this year’s Solstice Shorts Festival, of sharing and inspiration between writers and musicians.
The Blind Elephants of Io
Karen Bovenmyer
The silence is complete until
the rover’s thrum breaks it–
this is no place to catch
sight of the elephants of Io – so
Rev takes us down one dune almost
weightless
and up another, fine silt waterfalling.
Io is the same size as Earth’s moon
but pockmarked and yellow-red,
smoke-grey eruptions caused by huge
tidal forces from Jupiter’s mass
like the ones pulling my heart
into the dust storm that would result
from telling Rev how I really feel
about that night we spent together
skin to skin – for survival – wanting
infinity
so close, but professional, me
wanting him, skin to skin, again
regulations be damned
and both of us as well
but wanting is not acting, not–
Rev kills the rover and my heartbeat
thuds loud in my suit. The windshield steams
with mingled breath. I see footprints in sulfur-dioxide
frost where the elephants walked last solstice.
They only come one day, the shortest day
a singular chance, a slow procession
one alien moving before the other
almost touching, the way magma flows
in a low gravity environment, like
a lineup of lava lamps in a sex den
floating
Rev grips my shoulder as the herd appears
over the next dune, all around us
tails flicking, trunks swinging just above the
clouds of moon sand, moving like nothing
else, the rolling gait of their namesake–
like but not the pachyderms of Earth. Eyeless
heads swing ivory tusks back and forth
while the plasma torus of Io’s volcanic ejecta
glows behind them. Like a nimbus, their shapes
seem outlined in fire. The shortest day is ending.
I’m going to kiss him. I’m going to kiss
him before the elephants no one mentions
are no longer in the room. I’m going to
while he watches, his mouth relaxed,
eyes wide in wonder
Io is the driest known object
in the solar system, but right now
it is nothing compared to
my mouth
