Ron Riekki
En-vi-ron-ment-al
(With Each Line's Final Word from a Poem by Claudia Emerson)
"easy to find and slaughter"
—Claudia Emerson,
from "Environmental Awareness: The Right Whale"
When I was in prison & when I was
in the psych ward, it was so easy
to be remembered as dead,
as if my body has always been fat
with loss, as if my visible mouth
is invisible, the way that hairbrushes
become knives, the way everything stays
outside, the way that one female
paced halls like hunted smoke, & one man's
intense faking that he was haunted-crazy,
except there's no faking it.
Bio
Ron Riekki has been awarded a 2014 Michigan Notable Book, 2015 The Best Small Fictions, 2016 Shenandoah Fiction Prize, 2016 IPPY Award, 2019 Red Rock Film Fest Award, 2019 Best of the Net finalist, 2020 Dracula Film Festival Vladutz Trophy, 2019 Très Court International Film Festival Audience Award and Grand Prix, 2020 Rhysling Anthology inclusion, and 2022 Pushcart Prize. Right now, Riekki's listening to Giorgio Moroder's main theme from Midnight Express.