UMLÄUT 2020 - THE PANDEMIC ISSUE
COMMUNITY
Emily Kozhina
the world is so big and I am so small
call me by what i am: the heroine of some world:
persimmon and it is sweet dripping down my chin.
i forget how large a crowd can be,
how bus rides home with dusk skies sat with me.
i want to hold a stranger’s hand, run circles,
risk falling from the tops of trees knowing someone’s arm will open
wide like a gaping hole in the earth, welcome:
i have to remind myself the sun is still warm in the mornings,
and though these days stretch and contort into delusion,
open the window. feel a familiar breeze.