Roller Coaster

by Karen Neuberg

My country—
upheaval, unmooring, uproar—
media reporting events
as either good or bad
flipping those meanings 
depending on source
and me screaming sometimes 
in the first car
sometimes last car
ascending and descending …

ah politics
you never had me like this before—I cannot
hold on, cannot let go …

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Karen Neuberg is the author of the full-length poetry collection, PURSUIT (Kelsay Press) and three chapbooks including the elephants are asking (Glass Lyre). Her poems and collages have appeared in numerous publications including 805, Clockwise Cat, Gyroscope, Otoliths, Skipjack Review, Unleash Lit, and Vita Poetica. She studied multi-media collage at The Art Students League, holds an MFA in poetry from The New School, and was associate editor of the long-running online journal First Literary Review East. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. Links to some of her works can be found at https://www.instagram.com/karenneuberg/?hl=en