now

By Elena Botts

she said,

are you happy. i don’t know that’s the sort of dream

i haven’t yet woken from.

and i said, do the cows in the pasture, do they pray

like we pray.

and i said, when i walk in the cold

until my fingers are not warm, does this mean i hate

someone. do i hate the gods

we don’t have a name for, but press palms together?

and the answer was in the mountainside

shuddering up toward nightfall. and the

answer was her trembling her fingers

into her chest: “i’m so depressed.” and the answer was a fiery-haired girl

now just a thousand miles away who wouldn’t

answer a text. and the answer was i love you

written in roses on the side of a road. and the answer

was no.

Elena Botts grew up in Maryland and currently lives in Northern Virginia. She’s been published in over twenty literary magazines in the past few years. She is the winner of four poetry contests, including Word Works Young Poets’. Her poetry has been exhibited at the Greater Reston Art Center. Check out her poetry book, a little luminescence, at allbook-books.com. Additionally, her visual art has won her several awards. Go to o-mourning-dove.tumblr.com to see her latest artwork.