Wind Watching by Kelly Williams

What if Dorothy wasn’t afraid of the wind?
What if she welcomed the cyclone?

The thought of being lifted, suspended
in air as release. What if she saw

it as escape, being tossed-jolted? Maybe
a change would occur if she shook fast

enough. Maybe she liked not knowing
if her body would survive the catch and release.

Maybe being picked up and let
go in another’s chaos was freeing.

I imagine she was raptured before the light of the day
had kissed the earth. The swirl approached and she went

willingly. Threw her head and arms back
and let her get consumed.

She had been waiting to be swept off her feet
by a wild, uncontrollable thing.

Kelly Williams published her first book in 2012, Real Girls Have Real Problems. She is a recent graduate of the Queens University Masters in poetry program in Charlotte NC. Her poetry was recently published in Dirty Chai, Tishman Review, and Cameron Arts Museum, She Tells a Story. She is working on her full length poetry book and thesis project, entitled Poetry as Protest