Unstable Neighborhood Rabbit Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment Of
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Unstable Neighborhood Rabbit Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Masters of Fine Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Mikko Prehn Harvey, B.A. Graduate Program in English The Ohio State University 2016 Thesis Committee: Maggie Smith, Advisor Kathy Fagan Grandinetti Copyright by Mikko Harvey 2016 Abstract Unstable Neighborhood Rabbit is a collection of poems that is interested in anxiety, humor, violence, art, relationships, technology, miscommunication, and animals. Most of the poems move forward according to the imagination. The hope is that the imagination is fed by autobiographical and emotional experience, thereby establishing a world that feels meaningful, a world where the reader can see herself or himself. ii Acknowledgments Special thanks to Maggie Smith and Kathy Fagan for serving as my thesis committee and helping this collection of poems find its current form. Thanks to Andrew Hudgins and Henri Cole for their wisdom along the way. Thanks to my friends for inspiration, and to my family for understanding. iii Vita June 2009 .......................................................Cambridge Rindge and Latin School June 2013 .......................................................B.A. English, Vassar College August 2014 to present .................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of English, The Ohio State University Publications "Bird Call Association," Pleiades. Forthcoming, 2016 "Bobcat," New Ohio Review. 2014 "Cannonball," Juked and Best New Poets 2013. 2013 "If Your Phone Is On, Your Bank Is Open" and "Autobiography," Maisonneuve. 2014 "Into the Ordinary" and "During the Emergency," The Pinch. 2014 "Keys," Colorado Review. 2016 "Ode to Flesh-eating Bacteria," Kenyon Review. Forthcoming, 2017 "Sick Goat," Sixth Finch. 2015 "Swivel," The Boiler Journal. 2015 "The Critic Falls in Love," Poets.org. 2015 iv Fields of Study Major Field: English v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. iii Vita ..................................................................................................................................... iv Fields of Study .................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... vi Autobiography .................................................................................................................... 1 The Town ............................................................................................................................ 2 Bird Call Association .......................................................................................................... 4 Swivel ................................................................................................................................. 6 Vial ...................................................................................................................................... 7 During the Emergency ........................................................................................................ 8 Keys .................................................................................................................................... 9 Visions .............................................................................................................................. 10 Bobcat ............................................................................................................................... 12 Grab It Properly ................................................................................................................ 13 Little Crown ...................................................................................................................... 17 vi Variations on Familial Love ............................................................................................. 18 Sick Goat ........................................................................................................................... 19 Ode to Flesh-eating Bacteria ............................................................................................. 21 IF YOUR PHONE IS ON, YOUR BANK IS OPEN ....................................................... 24 Into the Ordinary ............................................................................................................... 25 Home ................................................................................................................................. 27 WHERE WILL YOU SPEND ETERNITY: HEAVEN OR HELL? ............................... 28 #48716652......................................................................................................................... 30 The Sentence ..................................................................................................................... 31 The Equipment .................................................................................................................. 32 The Art of War .................................................................................................................. 33 Castle in the Sky ............................................................................................................... 35 Love Poem ........................................................................................................................ 36 Portrait, Wartime ............................................................................................................... 37 Harold Never Felt Bored Because There Was Always More Breathing to Do ................ 38 Receipt .............................................................................................................................. 40 Game ................................................................................................................................. 42 The Critic Falls in Love .................................................................................................... 43 Outdoor Safety Tips .......................................................................................................... 45 vii Third Date ......................................................................................................................... 46 New School ....................................................................................................................... 48 The Man Who Takes Things ............................................................................................. 50 The Man Who Was a Door ............................................................................................... 51 Intimacy ............................................................................................................................ 52 Superstar ........................................................................................................................... 53 The Hole ............................................................................................................................ 55 Putt Putt ............................................................................................................................. 56 Beauty Recovery Room .................................................................................................... 58 The Fall ............................................................................................................................. 60 Butterfly Hunter ................................................................................................................ 61 Cannonball ........................................................................................................................ 62 viii Autobiography The bomb and the raindrop overlap briefly. Nice night, says the drop. Where you headed? says the bomb. Don't know, says the drop. Well goodbye, says the bomb. The bomb thinks, I am too heavy to make friends. Then he touches the mudbrick building. Shortly after, landing in debris, the drop thinks, O. 1 The Town The little town in my brain has seen better days but at least you're here, you with the brown yarn hair, you whose father farmed dairy. The way you gaze at your palm when you speak is sexy, as if our hands controlled us and the brain was secondary— I wish the brain were secondary. Once when we were together, eating bread and cheese by the river, the Gunderson dog caught a hare right in front of us. He took its neck in his teeth and thrashed. By the time Ruth Gunderson wrestled the dog off the hare was dead, curled in the grass like a towel. You hid your face in your hands. Little man that I was, I took this as a chance to finally touch you. I'm sorry, I said, reaching across the thin, peculiar air between us. 2 I’m sorry you had to see that, letting my fingertips rest on the skin of your back. You said nothing, uncrossed your legs and ran toward the pine woods. I just sat there and watched ants feast on the hare's blood, black windmill in the distance spinning. 3 Bird Call Association Andre got up and gave a crow call, the same one he gave every year—well, maybe a little sharper this time around,