Poems by Elizabeth Kerlikowski
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Enough
by Elizabeth Kerlikowski
From Canary Autumn 2009
Elizabeth lives in a spruce paradise between Asylum Lake and Woods Lake within Kalamazoo's city limits.
The disappointment of a thunderstorm
is that the lights may not go out
There may not be enough power in the sky
to plunge us into the darkness we crave and fear
The wind must howl the shingles off the roof
Rains cascade onto windshields
forcing traffic to its shoulders
Lightning snaps from transformers
a gray blue green landscape of electricity
Trees kneel in the road
and weather gnaws at the back door
What if there were no deafening sky fights
No house-shuddering cataclysms
How would the animals breathing inside
know they had survived
What if there is nothing
we can’t control
© Elizabeth Kerlikowski