Elephant
Fresh and clean
You sat in your box on the shelf
Waiting for me to finally notice you
With my hopeful, innocent eyes
Until I did
And freed you from your plastic prison
I dragged you everywhere with me
When you got your first tear I sobbed for hours
While mom tried to remember
Lost knowledge of sewing
The tears were inevitable
They never stopped coming
And for each tear that came
I cared less and less
Years passed
You watched
As I learned lessons
Made friends
Broke rules
And we drifted
Eventually there came a time
When your insides were more outside than in
And your tears outnumbered the years of my life
Some still struggling to be held closed
By thread hastily sewn
You were unappreciated
"Just a smelly stuffed animal from when I was a baby”
Then you were forgotten
Despite the fact that each trial and tribulation
We had endured together
Still lived on in my brain
You were forgotten
As if you weren’t the one I had
Cried
Laughed
Played
Joked
And grown up with
You were forgotten
Until I found you
In the depths of storage bins
Dull and dirty