Lemn Sissay MBE is a poet, author, broadcaster and the Chancellor of the University of Manchester.

It isn’t what’s said, it’s what’s not said what says it all.
She Said.

The day you brought it home
I’ll never forget.
It was only seven foot tall then.
An elephant! I said.
Put it in the back yard.
Fine you said fine!
And disgruntled
Tied it to the washing line.

When you slept I’d pull back the curtains
Stand by the window and watch it.
A dark shadow. An iceberg. A hump filled the backyard.
Rising and falling with each deep gentle snore

Breakfasts were never the same again.
The elephant took up all the space
And had no table manners whatsoever
Although it was useful for the washing up.
Whenever I broached the subject
You’d rant and rave and fume
Said I was going crazy, “There was no elephant n the room”.

But the saddest thing is not the crockery it smashed
Nor the walls it demolished of our past.
It wasn’’t its footsteps stamped all over our home
The cracked floorboards or its want to roam.
It was the lie established when I said it was there
For years you looked at me and said where dear.. where.

It isn’t what’s said it’s what’s not said what says it all.
She Said

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