incested girl / Academic Dialogue

ildikonova

Butterflies by Ildiko Nova

incested girl

room with pink walls
filled with pink things
pink accessories, clothes, shoes
dolls, toys, stuffed animals
plastic telephones, balloons, books
each item carefully arranged and displayed
a pink shrine
pink bed, bicycle, chairs, table, toy oven
toy washing machine, doll house, doll stroller
crowded against the door

 

Academic Dialogue

He wants me to listen to
his story, his pain, his ideas
but not to mine
He says, “You are cold”
I open my mouth
yes, a heavenly freezer door
a sudden frosty wind
where no words live
then quickly close it
mindful of my sweet preserves
walk away

By Andrea Nicki | Issue 8 (2016): Women and Justice | |

About Andrea Nicki

Andrea Nicki was born and grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She has a PhD in philosophy from Queen’s University and held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota. Her poems have appeared in Canadian and international journals and anthologies, such as The Brock Review, Rampike, The Goose, Philosophy Now, Magnolia: A Journal of Women’s Literature II, Women Write Their Bodies: Stories of Illness and Healing, Women and Environments International, She is Everywhere: Volume 3, Return to the Mago, and Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature. She teaches classes in professional ethics, essay writing, and poetry in Vancouver.

About Ildiko Nova

Ildiko Nova was born in Hungary in 1966 and has been doing art since she was a child. Though she is mostly self-taught, she has taken courses in watercolour at George Brown College in Toronto. Ildiko uses different media such as spontaneous marker drawings, illustrations, acrylic paintings and recycled materials. She explores the line between reality and dreaming and juxtaposes unusual elements. Trained as a community worker, Ildiko is always looking for connections to communities. She has taught art to street people in Toronto and volunteered in different art organizations in Winnipeg. Her interest as an activist includes human rights issues for underprivileged, marginalized communities and ethnic groups; she also would like to see more respect paid to women and children in our society. With past experiences as a Roma in Eastern Europe at the back of her mind, Ildiko has gratefully accepted invitations from Aboriginal classmates in Canada to learn about their cultures. This new awareness also surfaces in her art.

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