Nikita

By Alberto Ríos b. 1952 Alberto Rios

Under a heavy wire milk case,

A piece of concrete foundation

On top, in summer, in her backyard,

Mrs. Russo keeps the cat Nikita safe

From birds, from dogs, from eating

Johnson grass, which he throws up.

Nikita waits for ants to wander in

And for the sun to leave.

Instead, she comes to keep him

Company, saying You look fat

And that her son died,

Remember I told you?

Walking thin in his uniform

On a road.

Alberto Ríos, “Nikita” from The Lime Orchard Woman (Bronx: Sheep Meadow Press, 1988). Copyright © 1988 by Alberto Ríos. Used by permission of the author.

Source: The Lime Orchard Woman (The Sheep Meadow Press, 1988)

Biography

Alberto Ríos has won acclaim as a writer who uses language in lyrical and unexpected ways in both his poems and short stories, which reflect his Chicano heritage and contain elements of magical realism. "Ríos's poetry is a kind of magical storytelling, and his stories are a kind of magical poetry," commented Jose David Saldivar in the Dictionary of Literary Biography. Ríos grew up in a Spanish-speaking family but was forced to . . .

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