Wake Up Call

The Muse's Alley Short Story Contest (Sept. 03)
This contest called for a short story, but as I started to write, the prompt, “There’s an elephant on my desk,” just seemed more fitting for a poem.


“There’s an elephant on my desk!”
He said that morning in June
And tho’ they tried their very best,
People just had to look.
This quiet man who never spoke
Was singing a whole new tune.
It was as if a giant had awoke,
So people just had to look.

Slowly heads began to turn
As curiosity won out,
Wondering what they would learn,
When they turned to stare.
His quiet corner of the room
They knew nothing about.
Some craziness, they did assume,
As they turned to stare.

Days had come, days had gone,
He had done his job with care.
Now the day had come along,
When he would make them see.
As they went about their daily tasks
Did they know that he was there?
Today all would be in the past,
‘Cause he would make them see.

He came in early that morning fair,
His plan most carefully laid,
Then quietly leaned back in his chair
To watch the scene unfold.
One by one they shuffled in
And not a comment made
To the man with the stifled grin,
Who watched the scene unfold.

And when at last he’d had enough
He sat up straight and tall,
And said in a voice most gruff
“There’s an elephant on my desk!”
It was just a baby sitting there
Who let loose his trumpet call,
And caused surprised eyes to glare
At the elephant on his desk.