Nadia Arioli

Nadia Arioli is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Thimble Literary Magazine. Their recent publications include Penn Review, Hunger Mountain, Cider Press Review, Permafrost, Kissing Dynamite, Heavy Feather Review, and San Pedro River Review. They have chapbooks from Cringe-Worthy Poetry Collective, Dancing Girl Press, Spartan, and a full-length from Luchador. They were nominated for Best of the Net in 2021 by As It Ought to Be, West Trestle Review, Angel Rust, and Voicemail Poems.

Teaching My Son Poetry

Kitten, I read to my sonfrom a touch-and-feel book,Meow! Meow! and I showhim the picture of orange stripeswith yarn. It looks like our catbut smaller and more wide-eyed.Puppy, I read next, Woof! Woof!and I let him touch where the picturegives way to soft, white flufflike a forest emptying to a meadow.Tiger cub, licking his nose!Baby chimpanzee. Ooh-ooh. Aah-aah.Starfish. Five long arms.Butterfly, flutter, flutter, flutter.
Soon, I will give him other toolsfor knowing the world.Odometers for how far he’s been,spectrometers for whenlight is only wave,cyanometers for the blueness of the sky.
For now, I lay my son in his crib.He’s almost asleep, and I’veleaked through my shirt again.I dig through his crate of soft toys—everything is soft in babyland—and put his small elephant on his chest.The mother elephant it came withfeels too heavy. I make the baby elephantnuzzle my son’s face with its snout.Starfish, I say, five long arms.

Nadia Arioli

Teaching My Son Poetry

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