Niagara Falls
Let's workshop this poem about two companions at Niagara Falls who start trailing a man they more and more work themselves up to believing is a child predator with sights on two unaccompanied minors
Niagara Falls
Unsure if we would have the balls
to do anything aside from yell out
if he goes to grope their breasts
(just starting to bud) or to reach up
one of their dresses or something,
from a distance for almost an hour
we trail this creep floating around
two pubescent girls, clearly picking
each destination to keep watch
at least from the corner of his eye
(under that see-through pretense
of filming sights already on YouTube
a thousand times over in UltraHD
and often from drone perspectives).
One of them finally beelines to him
as if to yell “Enough is enough!”
(whispers of “Good for you, girl”
on both our lips). Crotch digging
longer than need be, from his pocket
he hands her something (could it be
an insinuative lollipop?), tight jeans
we picture cum crusted. She hurries
to her friend and we—hearts ready
to make our move, perhaps even
to bum-rush him over the railing
with applause enough to get laid—
watch her insert what must be a coin
in one of those tourist binoculars.*This poem is unpublished
*Painting: Niagara, by Frederic E. Church (1857)
In this poem, M. A. Istvan Jr. navigates the unsettling terrain of suspicion, moral uncertainty, and the tension between perception and reality. The poem unfolds as a tense narrative, where the speaker and their companion observe what they believe to be a potential predator trailing two young girls at Niagara Falls. The language, punctuated by phrases like "g*ope their breasts" and "reach up one of their dresses," evokes a visceral unease, capturing the intense scrutiny of the observers as they grapple with their own fears and judgments. The poem's setting—a public space like Niagara Falls, filled with tourists and cameras—heightens the irony of the situation, as the "creep" appears to be filming scenes already ubiquitous online, yet his actions are perceived as menacing and predatory.
The narrative tension is further amplified by the bystanders' internal conflict, where they question their own courage, wondering if they would have the "balls to do anything" if the situation escalated. Their hesitation is not just about physical confrontation but also about the moral implications of acting on assumptions. The poem captures this psychological struggle, where the fear of inaction is weighed against the fear of overreaction.
Istvan skillfully subverts expectations when the girl finally approaches the man. The bystanders, poised to intervene, are met with an anticlimax as the man simply hands the girl a coin for the binoculars. The reader is left to grapple with the ambiguity of the situation—was the man truly a threat, or were the observers projecting their anxieties onto an innocent scene? The image of "tight jeans we picture c*m crusted" reveals the extent to which the bystanders' imaginations have been tainted by their fears, turning a mundane interaction into something sinister.
The poem serves as a commentary on the ease with which suspicion can warp perception, leading to misjudgment and moral paralysis. Istvan leaves the reader with a sense of unease, not only about the characters within the poem but also about our own tendencies to jump to conclusions based on incomplete or biased information. "Niagara Falls" is a powerful exploration of the complexities of human judgment, the thin line between vigilance and paranoia, and the often-overlooked consequences of our assumptions.
M. A. Istvan Jr., Niagara Falls poem, moral uncertainty, human perception, vigilance vs. paranoia, predatory behavior, suspicion and reality, psychological tension, bystander effect, projection of fears, judgment and misjudgment, poetic exploration, complex human behavior.