Thinking the unthinkable is easy;

Just ask any politician – in fact, don’t even bother –

I can think the unthinkable, right here, right now:

I can imagine, for instance, an elephant

In pink polka-dot boxer shorts,

Its vast, grey, crinkly arse, looming and ridiculous.

 

It’s unthinking the unthinkable that’s the problem;

Once you’ve thought it, it’s like shedding nuclear waste,

Or like when someone tells you not to think

Of a monkey on your back,

When taking medication.

 

Now, I’ve got this sodding monkey

And this bloody elephant

Following me around; they’re everywhere I look,

Lurking on my visual periphery,

The unthinkable, just out the cornea of my eye,

Like light scattered by a prism, or something

Glimpsed once, in a Camera Obscura

Or an unfocused kaleidoscope.

 

Grit under my lids, no matter how wet my lashes get

I can’t unthink it for myself;

And neither surgeon nor priest can unthink it for me.

 

Be careful what you unthink.

You might just think it.