XIII. Death

THE MESSENGER
by Nikki Reimer

I am/two white horses/a part
in a line/could be worse/we awaken
radically on fire/transformed onboard
in the charnel ground/sister bone
a part of life/take off my hooves
stoic messenger/and a part
if I took your place/of you
and burn/would it hurt/them

skin/potato/ash/and a part
leave your bags/affix your own oxygen
embrace change/mask/in all forms
a part/abandon personal belongings
a part of life/step off the platform
a part of life/radically burned clean
part river part inferno
and a part of you

Nikki Reimer (she/her), writer/maker/doer, is a carbon-based life form of Ukrainian and Russian Mennonite descent who lives on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta. She may or may not be undead. Published books are My Heart is a Rose Manhattan, DOWNVERSE, and [sic]. For two years in the early aughts she was co-editor of (orange) poetry + prose zine with ryan fitzpatrick.