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Elena Botts

Thanks for Calling

(Excerpt from WIP “as if some vital gift…”

Thanks for calling. I’m up to nothing. It’s all old news, though no more circles. Newspapers caught in the fence. Right now, I can’t say the same thing twice. I hope you feel the freedom of the winter’s day. Not like choosing to avoid or endure: what is that even? A walk in the cold, a walk in this wind. You know what wind means, but now it falls away. The wind has more of a mind than the living, but how becomes a flat stillness. What brings you joy, that’s what I wish. Making one’s life is like a long prospect, full of decisions. I’m just sitting for the sun to pass through the glass and move away again. This will all be small one day. You know that already, I make words meaningless. Keep warm. Would you rather comfort me, or I, you? Your head, on the pillow: a smile in the middle of a dream. I’m always still here. See you soon.

 

About the writer:
Elena Botts has lived many places in the northeast and abroad,. Elena’s poems have been published in over a hundred literary magazines. Elena is the winner of four poetry contests and has had many books published. Elena’s visual artwork has won numerous awards and has been exhibited in various galleries. Elena has also collaborated on, released and installed sound and moving image artwork, as well as multimedia and conceptual art, and formed a multimedia collective for this purpose, while pursuing graduate school, human rights, and arts projects.

Image: Screen Shot by Elena Botts. Fine art photograph. No technical information specified. By 2022. By permission.

OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprint Buttonhook Press, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation supporting writers and artists worldwide.

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