Mixed-up Pixies At An Exhibition - Chapter One Promotions

The giraffe was taller than the palm trunk.
A monkey
was eating the palm leaves.
A cheetah
was watching the monkey's ass.
Down somewhere,
Pelicans and elephants were drinking water from a puddle.
Suddenly
A boa swallowed one of the elephants,
Like in old days
Like funny sunflower faces of friends,
Long before any of us was cheated, offended or killed,
Long before the forest fire that burned our leaves.
The children's exhibition was desperately exciting;
Each blockhead was judging hundred pictures at least
And criticizing every colour other than white.
Who knows who that tall woman with green eyes was,
Running around, looking for her daughter,
The girl with her baby panda,
Running around and crying for her mother,
The pale plain portrait looking for the colours
Lost long ago in minuscule town offices.
The girl wore a pink ribbon and a princess dress
Like the one I saw in a black-and-white photograph
On mother's bedside table one day.
Her shoes were wet and untied.
A wood-carved sculpture kept watching us
And our pictures at the exhibition,
Wondering for sure
Dear Sirs, how a boa can swallow an elephant.

By Ali Tevfik Tokdemir