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teens and death

     THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Picture
There is an elephant in the room.
It is large and squatting, so it is hard to get around it.
Yet we squeeze by with, "How are you" and "I am fine."
And a thousand other forms
of trivial chatter.
We talk about the weather.
We talk about work.
We talk about everything---
except the elephant in the room.

There is an elephant in the room.
We all know it is there.
We are thinking about the elephant
as we talk together.
It is constantly on our minds.
For you see it is a very big
elephant.
It has hurt us all.
But we do not talk about
the elephant in the room.
Oh please, say her name.
Oh please say "Barbara" again.

Oh please let's talk about the
elephant in the room.
For if we can talk about her death,
perhaps we can talk about her life?
Can i say "Barbara" to you and not
have you look away?

For if I cannot, then you are leaving
me
Alone...
In a room....
With an elephant

~Terry Kettering~

 
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