Kathleen Heil

WELCOME TO THE SITUATION [SCHILLERKIEZ, BERLIN]

My neighbor came stalking after
me, a sense the building was his
was the only thing he had. Raus!

roiled the stickers on his door
I knew better then to say leave
me alone, called the Polizei

they said back off, he did
they said, in Berlin you have
to be firm, I said, tell that

to the woman who’s never
had a stranger strangle her
just for asserting her right

to exist, wrong, I asserted
nothing, tried to hide, lo
worse, yeah um violence

at my side. Hey big boys
twice my size, ya heard?
A body never forgets!

It sweats and shakes and taunts
me with the question, which—
as if it’s my job

to explain, to fix. Some trick,
that painted pony, refined
by her plucky ability

to ride high or descend,
so long as she behaves:
good carousel, stay

in place. The agents were watching. It was the gig
we got. Be grateful, they said.
Like I won’t.

KATHLEEN HEIL is the author of You Can Have it All (Moist Books, 2024) and the translator of The Loveliest Vowel Empties, Meret Oppenheim’s collected poems (World Poetry Books, 2023). Her work appears in The Common, The New Yorker, and The Stinging Fly.