Poetry by Elizabeth Joy Levinson

                ​Pawel Maryanov CC



Easement

There is something trying to live
everywhere, quietly 
in the stubbled thyme
vining the cracks 
in the mortar, 
green rivers, 
gristled leaves.
Brush your fingers against it, 
gently, your hand 
will be inhabited
tiny white flies, 
a cricket nymph
spider mites 
in scarlet constellations 
across your palm.

But this is easy to imagine, 
there are so many corners, 
ecotones we’d rather ignore
where something is breathing
a spark of energy, 
that might leave you wounded 
were you to dig around
something is always struggling
beneath the rubble,
that wild square foot
between your home 
and the alley.
You say one day, you’ll 
plant something there,
but you don’t
you only dream about it,
a dream of lost teeth
that are not your own. 




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What wolves have you been?

What wolf are you? and what wolves have you been? the truck stop t-shirt with the wolves walking through your chest, the one you begged for when you were ten, what do they know of you, having been through your ribs, bones that cage nothing, not your lungs, which have always breathed evenly, but that's not how any of this works.

What wolf are you? greying against a grey sky, how long have you waited to eat? have you always waited to eat? when you were hungry and chewing saltines in the back of a minivan parked for some time, what were you even waiting for? water. you waited for water. 

What wolves have you been? the sharp side gnash and nip at the small and vulnerable. when they fuck up, you will hurt them to save them, but you will also hurt them to save yourself. you didn't mean to, but you probably smacked a wrist. you were ten. what were you waiting for? the wolves were out hunting, but you stayed behind. 




Elizabeth Joy Levinson teaches and writes on the southwest side of Chicago. She has an MFA in Poetry from Pacific University and an MAT in Biology from Miami University. Her work has appeared in Whale Road Review, FEED, Tiny Spoon, Floresta, SWWIM, Cobra Milk, and others. She is the author of two chapbooks: As Wild Animals (Dancing Girl Press) and Running Aground (Finishing Line Press). Her first full length collection, Uncomfortable Ecologies, will be published in the fall of 2023 (Unsolicited Press).
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