Cop to It, Mim

FROM THE ONLINE CHAPBOOK FLAMINGO PARK

Cop to It, Mim

Miriam Levine

Cop to it, Mim, you’re a snob and a show-off.

You dis people who say “purchased,” instead of “bought,”

who wouldn’t say “fuck” when they’re fucking.

You love the language of Twelve Step meetings—

don’t drink even if your ass falls off,

shitty committee, issues in the tissues,

attitude of gratitude, stinkin’ thinkin’, dry drunk,

yesterday’s history, tomorrow a mystery,

sleeping in the weeds, sex monkey, plug the jug,

hurtin’ at that particular time so I cold-conked my father,

higher power, turn it over, the bottle, big house or the box,

I’m not much but I’m all that I think about, Yale or jail,

we don’t have the pick of the parish or cream of the crop,

take what you want and leave the rest, Schlitz-face,

put the chip in your mouth and when it melts you can drink,

chewing the booze: That was you, Mim, binging on eclairs,

bulimic. You used to do that.

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Flamingo Park
Miriam Levine
2026

Flamingo Park is Miriam Levine’s gift to you. The setting of this online chapbook is the Flamingo Park neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida. The themes, for the most part, are love, death, joy—laughter and tears—the longstanding themes of lyric poetry.