Elizabeth (Elizag) Gordon lives in Cohoes and is the author of the poetry collection Love Cohoes. She’s a founding member of Albany’s Nitty Gritty Slam and reads regularly at area open mics. She’s been teaching for 13 years at Northampton Community College, currently in the online division.
So Far So Safe
I thought I had a can of pineapple
but it’s only apricots
in the cabinet, apricots in syrup. Still,
what wealth. So far from my fellow citizens
eating in the dark, petitioning the monster
for water. So far and so safe that an appetite for pineapple
can rise up in me this oddly warm October morning like a trout
in a lake, like a trout the color of days-old bruises, jaw
a spiral binding of hooks, cold witness: All
we all want
is to live.
Originally published in Friends Journal – January 2018
