Poetry. A PAINTED ELEPHANT tells a tale of love--unrequited, like all the best stories. A lonely Indian elephant, newly arrived at the Calgary Zoo on loan from Holland, with a penchant for moonlight escapes. Her Romeo? The wooden Maytag Man statue on Calgary's 9th Avenue, who woos her with his sad eyes, his firm oaken thighs, his aloofness. Punished for her romantic escapades, our heroine is made to suffer a thirty-day quarantine in which she meditates on the true meaning of pachyderm love. Nina Simone, German opera and a chorus of Canadian poets play in the background. Incense, speculaas cookies and cheap flowers scent the air. Goddesses, myrmidons and shipwrecks appear with some frequency. And finally, upon emerging from her solitary confinement--well, the outcome is as tragic as it is inspiring. With fractured, playful language, the smart and funny A PAINTED ELEPHANT trumpets an important new voice in Canadian poetry.