by Anne Kazak
Staying afloat
Whales swim past us, over us,
sleek and grey and enormous,
how little they notice us,
hanging onto the concrete pylons
for dear life, treading a fine line,
this bridge a stitch in the water,
a wish for what is wild to know me
and to be known — in this dream, we are
shoulder to shoulder, half underwater, and
closer than a day ever allows,
both of us breathless
in the vortex of their footprints
slicking the surface,
leaving us with mirrors
through which, finally
we see each other.
Elizabeth Joy Levinson is a high school biology teacher in Chicago. Her work has appeared in Whale Road Review, SWWIM, One Art, The Shore, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. She is the author of a full-length collection, Uncomfortable Ecologies, available from Unsolicited Press, as well as three chapbooks: Thigmonasty (Ghost City Press), Running Aground (Finishing Line Press) & As Wild Animals (Dancing Girl Press). https://ejoylevinson.com/ Instagram @ejoylevinson.
Anne Kazak is a psychologist and photographer who cannot remember a time when she didn’t have a camera in her hand. Using cameras or drones, she loves landscapes, capturing the beauty of nature, focusing on light, patterns, and telling a story about places. Her journeys draw her to abandoned spaces and the documenting the history of institutions. As vestiges of the past, these places prompt us to rethink the present. She also frequently uses diptychs or triptychs to juxtapose discrepancies and reveal unexpected connections. www.annekazakphotography.comhttps://www.instagram.com/annekazak.