My neighbor comes at one a.m. in her night
clothes to say my toilet’s screaming in the pipes
through her walls, and before I can turn her
away or tell her to joggle the handle she’s got it
disassembled, got her hands wet, and now I
hear the water too, wanting away in our old
shared pipes, trying to spin some long mystery,
filling and refilling the basin, writing with rust
in perfect lines, wasting while the whole town
sleeps, water incognito; my neighbor yanks
the chain, bobs the rubber stopper, the water
rests at last, my neighbor drags her damp socks
back to bed. This embryonic Tuesday flutters
in its darkness around me like a new moth;
crickets; an ambulance; my steam heat ticking
its own old pipes with some other ancient code—
I try to decipher sleep again, hearing the air
above my bed scratch its legs against the ceiling,
realizing I was smothered a little every night
by my toilet, of all the ridiculous things, renegade
water, or some tired bit of rubber permitting
the innocent water through, the hushing music,
like a friend saying don’t be lonely, or I’m lonely too.
Nikki Moustaki, author of the memoir, The Bird Market of Paris, holds an MA in poetry from New York University, an MFA in poetry from Indiana University, and an MFA in fiction from New York University. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant in poetry, along with many other national writing awards. Her poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in various newspapers and literary magazines, anthologies, and college textbooks, including The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, Publishers Weekly, The Village Voice, and Miami Herald, and her work has been featured in Glamour, O, the Oprah Magazine, Elle, and on NPR. She is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Poetry and the poetry collection Extremely Lightweight Guns.
Credit: from Extremely Lightweight Guns (Red Hen Press, 2021). Permission has been granted by the poet.
Nikki Moustaki’s latest book is Extremely Lightweight Guns. Visit with her and her work at the Miami Book Fair 2021.
Welcome to SWWIM Every Day’s preview coverage of Miami Book Fair (MBF) 2021! The poets whose work you’ll be reading every weekday from October 25 through November 12 are just a few of the many authors from around the world participating in this year’s MBF, the nation’s largest gathering of writers and readers of all ages. They all look forward to sharing their work, thoughts, and ideas both in person and online. Between November 14 and November 21, new poet conversations and readings will be launched and available for free on miamibookfaironline.com (in addition to other content). For more information, visit the website and follow MBF on Instagram and Twitter at @miamibookfair and use the hashtag #miamibookfair2021.
