Amber's Reviews > IRL

As soon as I finished it, I wanted to begin again.
From
"Fireworks
pop fizz in all directions,
but being in a backyard
surrounded by brownstones
you only get the thunder
and the shudder-- war outside
the walls But we've liquor n
Mariah n we're poets,
so we talk about temporal
locations of audio- trauma
and we talk about
margaritas.  We blab about
the battle from the backyard."

to

"We just get com-
fortable with each other
at a time when comfort
something come stop the shaking
is more important than
privacy."

This piece is is hard to describe without sounding corny. It's like being the ghost in the mirror of someone looking in the mirror, putting on too much makeup and the new face makes them miserable but they have to. Then we get to watch as they slowly remove the faces, accepting some, rejecting others, searching for more, yet identifying with all. I felt like a voyeur, but I think that's partly the intention.

And the way it comes to an end is both a punch in the gut and a relief... like a proper climax should be.