Our Office Elephant

There's an elephant in the office
Sometimes we don't see it
Sometimes we pretend its not there
Certainly, we don't talk about it
It seems that we can't

A mammoth dropped in on us years ago
Someone glimpsed it late one night
The mammoth was big and scary
And we knew little of the ice age
So they got confused, they got mixed up
Instead of that mammoth, they saw something else
A saber-toothed tiger

Now they tell their story constantly
And everyone knows it too well
Most think saber-toothed tigers visit us
And are prepared

But it's an elephant in the office now
And it belongs to one of our own
It has a certain stubborn streak
But it's usually safe (so long as it's fed)
Still, though, we don't talk about it
Or we cower in fright, seeing sharp tiger-teeth

There's an elephant in our office
Unseen, unspoken, feared or ignored

And the elephant's owner feels silenced
She knows of our confusion
And she doesn't want to scare us
So though elephants just walk with her
And she really can't avoid that
She (like us) doesn't mention them

She doesn't speak about what is
A big part of her life.