TOPPLING

by Nadia Niva

Last time I was the instructor of a new way of thinking

The bald Eiffel Tower was nothing to me

I was a glittering mirrorball

I was stuffed up my own turkey

I’ve had enough of your lingo

You’ve already said a lot

Go back on your used donkey!

Ride back to town for the flagellation!

The floodplain is swarming with bats

The whole blinking mass of ‘em

The skinks!

We’ve run out of jargon for the neighborhood

Like the kid on the train who keeps whooping for nothing

I am not going to crowd your island with staircases

Or throw a party with my poltergeists

They’re all lined up on the balcony

They’re thinking of toppling

______

Nadia Niva is a poet and childcare worker from the Pacific Northwest. Her recent work can be found in Dreck Lit, and is forthcoming in scaffold and Michigan City Review of Books. Listen to her radio show nightbus/daydream (freeformportland.org, every other Wednesday 8-10pm).

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