Joan Leotta   

Is She Yearning to Go Out?

  —After Edward Hopper, Cape Cod Morning, 1950

She is alone,
leaning into the bay window,
face almost against the glass,
looking on her outer world,
grass gone wild, bathed
in east’s bright early light,
ocean just over the ridge.
When I look out my kitchen bay
my ken is a world of
birds darting here and there,
tamed grasses, neatly trimmed,
even in this time of pandemic.
Ocean, yes, it is near,
but not close enough to see or hear.
My world continues up to the fence.
Her eyes peer far beyond any boundaries.

Alas, the size of our worlds
beyond our artful bays
matters not at all,
for we are both confined, inside
waiting, waiting, waiting,
until we can safely
tread those grasses, run,
and dip our feet into the ocean.

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