Low under indigo,

 

Elana Wolff

 

 

hull of the day.
Two across Formica sitting
underneath a metal ceiling
lit by pinpoint stars.
The land outside is incognito ~
eddy in the rattle of a storm.
Trees along the track
are great galoots
in grubby habits,
grabbing at the glass
in mad abandon.
Before the wind
they’d stood aloof,
at attention,
dutiful—
simply watching trains
and passing wildlife.
Anyone can understand
they can’t be wooden
totems always,
specially not in moody
mid-December.
I lean against the window,
feel their heaving
hitch my breath.
Your face
in dotted dark
is parsed ~
          a noun,
an apparition.

 

 

Elana Wolff lives and works in Thornhill, Ontario—the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee and Huron-Wendat First Nations. Her poems and creative nonfiction have recently appeared (or will soon appear) in Arc online (Awards of Awesomeness), Bear Review, Best Canadian Poetry 2021, Canadian Literature, CV2, Grain, Montréal Serai, MONO, Pinhole Poetry, Literary Review of Canada, Taddle Creek 25th Anniversary Edition, Waterwheel Review, and White Wall Review. Her collection, Swoon (Guernica Editions), won the 2020 Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry. Her newest collection is Shape Taking (Ekstasis Editions, 2021).