As though between one page

by Elena Streett

As though between one page
and another I met my soul,
so wrung out, her heart wrinkled,
and limp curtains of dusk
round her salt stained eyes
she sank me deep in my step.
I pawed at breath.

And when I found wind again
I saw she clutched to her chest an armful
of letters, their edges smoking,
her arms scorched and sculpted
with burns as ponderosa bark.
They blazed a great hole
through her middle.

She glowed.

“I don’t know what I’d do
without this warmth,”
she said, watching me shiver.

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Elena Streett is a poet, librettist, and composer from Fort Worth, Texas, currently studying creative writing at Oklahoma Baptist University. Her poems have appeared in Folio: the Literary Magazine of Holy Family University. In addition to poetry, she is preparing her first musical, Dreamers: A Depression-Era Musical Fairytale, for its university premiere at Oklahoma Baptist University in April 2024.