Under the Big Top
Outside the forum, a crowd was gathering. It was lunch time, and businessmen in suits stood in small groups waiting for them to arrive. Hordes of children squealed with anticipatory delight, running around in small circles and tugging on their parents’ coats. They heard them before they saw them – two loud trumpet-like calls cutting through the murmuring mass, a moment of silence, then the wide-eyed wonderment and excited chatter of the children again.
They were led out into the middle of the street, lumbering behind their trainers and parting the throngs effortlessly. Their wrinkled grayish-brown skin was dotted with hair. Everyone was always surprised by that. Plain, unadorned, and out-of-costume, the elephants were still magnificent. Their immensity was more amazing when viewed up close. Picture a wall of rough flesh rising before you, a moving mound of muscles, powerful hindquarters, and the most soul-searching pair of eyes found in the animal kingdom. You know they are seeing into you. You know they will remember.
I cannot bring myself to watch them eat. It’s what I came out for, it’s what everyone came out for, but now that I’ve seen them I can’t do it. I don’t like being watched when I’m eating, and I’m certain they feel the same. A lifetime of being watched becomes its own circus. You end up wanting to rip your own skin off and throw it at the surrounding circle, even though you know that the circle moves around you, growing and contracting but always out of reach, out of touch. It is indeed a circus, but it’s all you’ve ever known, and after being the center of attention for so long you come to realize: there’s no other way.
The Full Project HERE.