Alicia Elkort

We stood at the open window

 
its threshold, a border

a holding back;
wind
strummed an elm tree,
the sound

echoing an open sky.

We were full of yearning,
imagining more—

another way
to breathe

knowing this window was once imagined. 

My cat slept by my shoulder.

She’d hidden in the closet for days— 

it has passed,
this moment of terror.

The wind will find us.

Alicia Elkort's first book of poetry, A Map of Every Undoing, was published in 2022 by Stillhouse Press with George Mason University. Alicia's poetry has been nominated several times for the Pushcart, Best of the Net, and the Orison Anthology, and her work appears in numerous journals and anthologies. She reads for Tinderbox Poetry Journal and works as a Life Coach helping people find more joy and peace. Alicia lives in Santa Fe, NM where praise and clouds are part of her everyday experience. For more info or to watch her two video poems: http://aliciaelkort.mystrikingly.com/