and in this body i am entitled to what i am not
and in this house i am catching my foot in the screen door
and in this universe i do no wrongs /

i wake whenever i please, and know not the meaning of calories. i take eyes turned upwards towards me as submission. i take myself as oppressed for wanting to submit in return.

and in this room i am not receptive to consequences
and in this building i ask the only questions
and in this town i am licking bookshelves clean

at the time of inception i am unburdened
by what is necessary or what is sufficient
(i make these decisions myself)
by to whom to lend a piece of heart
(better not do so at all)
and where tears go for those
younger with unaddressed ailments,
wiser with unheld hurt
(are they both crying for me, too?)
i am unaware what it means, in general, to feel
fatalistic tie, to give to fatal degree
and in this lifetime i
can ride a bike, and better correct English, and welcome the dogs biting at my forearms
in this instance i know everything you don’t although i

don’t really know much at all

---

Ariana Eftimiu is a recent graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, in New York City. When not writing, she is making a several-hour-long playlist on Spotify or on a long walk accompanied by a coffee and her loved ones. She has published work in the National Poetry Quarterly, Not Very Quiet, and the Columbia Daily Spectator, among other places.