for Alexander in Aklan I. The Elephant in the Room See the elephant in the room? His way today of yesterday Is trumpeting judgmentally Of iron inequality His not hers nor yours anyway Or the never-now-ever-then The elephant is in the womb For frightened sheep how they should be Nor ever would be free again Of what only they never see For fearful hate consumed with doom Of the likes of us you and me Love could be how we finally See the ever-then-never-now Free for now the only way how Of the elephant in the room II. Seeing the Elephant It is about race so they say it is not Firehoses tried to wash the memory Away but the stain remains I see Pain written red in black and white now of How I remember though they forgot The biting dogs of hatred on TV As some remember more immediately Beaten on the street in the name of love I was a child but it still hurts me Seeing the elephant looking away No more this way I can see yesterday Tomorrow today to my sorrow I hoped we would be better someday somehow But I know we could do better than we do now III. Iron and Rust His table is laid but the elephant is afraid And what is he so afraid of? He is afraid of change Apparently inherently I find kind of strange Though once I was no stranger to the danger of this fear But I learned through change the only constant now and here That how to be is growing knowing all will be all right Sure as night comes after day then day comes after night The elephant is afraid now how his bed is made When some things are unchanging some becoming as they must Is when we learn the difference between iron and rust +Steven Curtis Lance Copyright MMXIII