Elephant Toenails & Sleepwriting

Rainbows!

by Amy LV

 

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.

Students - I wrote this poem while half-asleep.  It was bedtime (past bedtime) and I had not yet written for the day.  I told myself, "Just get something started!"  And most of this poem is what poured out.  Why on earth?

Sometimes you'll never know.

For a couple of days afterward, I continued to tinker with the words and lines, and then I began to worry that elephants do not even HAVE toenails.  Worse yet, I worried that elephants might not even have TOES! But I knew I'd seen those lemon-slice-sized-half-moons on elephant feet, so I figured they must. I looked it up and found this very detailed article and set of pictures of elephant foot anatomy.  Phew.

The moral of the story is this: try writing while you are half-asleep.  Try it in the evening.  Try it in the morning.  Let your brain work in its foggy state.  Turn off the wide-awake-censor who likes to say, "That's ridiculous!  Don't write that!" and you may discover fresh - or even strange - ideas.  You, too, may find that you have a fancy elephant somewhere in your mind.

And now...for elephant toenail jokes!  I found these at WikiAnswers and felt relieved that my own elephant will be able to hide in a jellybean jar.

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