The Nikkio
 
         
   

by Lynn Strongin

The nikkio:
Neo-natal intensive care unit
gleams in the frost moon.

Head of the night-nurse
sleek as the taxidermist's
stuffed loon.

A Memoir, A Tremor, she is writing
————who fled hurricane Rita
—————to wind up in the oncologist's office

——————the hive of her head
——————hoarding honey
——————like bees humming.

Flood with victims from parishes in New Orleans,
———the cancer specialist is blunt
bright as winter stars.

She is trying to hold back death, the poet: —————with a hook:
With sandbags ————with coal sacks:———————anything
with old scars, salt cellars all shoved up against the caving shoulders of life:
Expanse of wall white as a neck.
Subsisting on love ———they agreed to sign papers ——drive away——a rainy day

    
Lynn Strongin was born, NYC, 1939, and grew up during the war years in New York and various parts of the south. Early studies in musical composition branched out into the study of poetry. She worked for Denise Levertov in Berkeley in the Sixties, began publishing in various anthologies. After eight years in New Mexico, she moved to British Columbia, Canada, where she has lived for the past twenty-five years. in Canada, British dialects affect her tone of voice in poetry. She will have nine published books by mid-2006 (including one electronic chapbook), poems in over thirty anthologies, fifty-five journals in print and on-line. Recently she has been featured poet in New Works Review, Big Bridges, A Little Poetry, and is upcoming featured artist in Artistry in Life, and Snow Monkey. In December, a chapter of her memoir INDIGO was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.