Coup - Nikki Williams

When your father fled the collapsed state, you were left behind. A keepsake glance lingered across swathes of havoc — strong shoulders, prayer beads, silver tears. In time, you reached the foreign land, its familiar bonds; your mother tongue now powerless as your father's hands. Scrambling into a double shift on your sweet sixteen, you curse the bitter winter, both God and Angelo's fuzzy commands. Eventually, you'll accept Emory’s scholarship, your dad's demerits, collapsing in a euphoric state on frayed linen, drifting off through silver streams. Waiting, waiting to deploy structure, order, pragmatics — the forces of Linguistics — to your tongue-in-cheek regime.

Bio:

Nikki is a multimedia journalist and writer. Her work appears in The Citron Review, Ellipsiszine, Sublunary Review, LEON Literary Review, Literary Yard, PreeLit and Sky Island Journal. She munches trail mix and takes stunning photos when not busy writing. She tweets: @ohsashalee / See more: linktr.ee/writenowrong