Swallowtail

“there is a man

I can only talk about in metaphor,
the way his tattoos make

an avalanche of my mouth”

There's very few (if not none) of Button Poetry's books that aren't about some kind of excruciating life experience or another, but that's what makes the medium so compelling as an outlet. Abusive relationships, grief and suicide were laid out in both the usual classic/tired metaphors as well as more contemporary ones (ie Harry Potter, Survivor, Disney). A bit hard to get into at first, but it eventually pulls you in. I won't go as far as to call it riveting from cover to cover; some of the pieces started sounding the same and I skimmed over it thinking I might have already read that page. Loved the one addressing audience members who are tired of hearing yet another rape poem.

Thank you Button Poetry and NetGalley for this eARC.