Tyke the Elephant, 1994

 

“Tangent XXXIV” by Catherine Skinner

By Jeffrey Hecker

 

Thomas Square to King Street Catholic Cemetery, VIVE Church Kapiolani Boulevard to Big Island Volcano Tours, Waimanu Street, The Mezzanine at Hana Koa, to Tropical Lamp & Shade, Kamani Street, Café Duck Butt, Sunshine Scuba, Pohulani Processing to Dive Oahu, Yakiniku Sizzle, Mother Waldron Playground, Dream Vision Eye Care to Hanapua Flowers, prior to police shooting her 86 times, Tyke the Elephant crushed her abuser zoo-keeper Allen Campbell, and after cocaine came out of his skull, inside Neal Blaisdell Center to outside one half-hour all around Kaka’ako, Honolulu she ran ran ran ran ran ran ran.


Jeffrey Hecker is the author of Rumble Seat (San Francisco Bay Press), chapbooks Hornbook (Horse Less Press), Instructions for the Orgy (Sunnyoutside Press) & Ark Aft (The Magnificent Field). Recent work appears in South Dakota Review. A fourth-generation Hawaiian-American, he teaches at The Muse Writers Center & reads for Quarterly West.