Josh Nicolaisen
Line Dancing in America
In distinct lines we dance among friends,
virtue signal to hand-selected audiences
shoot within safe spaces, sure-footed
and secure to blame and shame.
No trouble within the tribe.
No fighting within the flock.
We preach to choirs, push at open
doors, toot each other’s horns,
scratch each other’s backs,
jerk each other off and around,
shit on the other with love,
love the other through hate.
Hens and roosters squawking around
the barnyard, confident and cocksure,
while just outside the farm’s perimeter
wait eager wolves and foxes.
Josh Nicolaisen has taught English in both public and private schools for more than ten years. He organizes and officiates snowboard and freeski events and is the owner of Old Man Gardening LLC. Josh lives in New Hampshire with his wife, Sara, and their daughters, Grace and Azalea. His poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in So It Goes, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, and Writers Resist, as well as in the anthologyThe Poets of New England: Volume 1 (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018), edited by the Underground Writers Association).
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