Two seconds’ notice and oncoming lights Your scuttling steps were swift on cement Your wobbling walk blending in with brown road Why were you on that bridge The unnatural predator of the midnight river rolled on Inexorable Nowhere to turn, nowhere to go It could not stop for you and did not swerve Inevitable outcome Your soft body barely a bump beneath its weight More sound than feeling The brush of fur on fiberglass, rubber on bone Why were you on that bridge There was no purpose in the taking No exchange, no life for life, for sustenance or survival Nothing sacred, just unholy probabilities Incidental death, a side effect Collateral damage from this black tar current A killing machine your instincts were not designed to evade Why were you on that bridge ~Elena Nola
“You Are the Commodity, Your Time Is the Coin”
Or, “It’s OK to Simply Be Sometimes”
Everyone in the world keeps asking me for my attention
My time for their words, idea, perspective
My focus on what they made
Because they hope to change me
Some days I feel willing to be changed
But lately all I want is to heed the call of the dew on the garden
Still in shadow from the rising sun
To sit with the birdsong
Still in shadow from the rising sun
To sit with the birdsong
And the warming cloak of silence
And let myself stay exactly as I am
And let myself stay exactly as I am
-Elena Nola
Elena Nola, Poet 