Insert Coin

By Joshua Zelesnick

In Insert Coin the reckless project of American capitalism and imperialism is felt through four characters-a contestant, a drone operator, a monster, and a prisoner-who interact in a world of game shows, chain-of-command killing, and confusion around the virtual and the real. Through video games, fantasy, and drone warfare by joystick, the book chronicles dissociation and denial as well as a soul longing for meaning in a world whose absurd violence and demand for profit feels simulated but is all too real. Insert Coin launches an experimental syntax with strict formal constraints, such as a 6-syllable line by 8-line stanza sequence to suggest the unbearable dimensions of a solitary confinement cell. In these poems, a civilization that can only imagine destruction asks, "how do I get to the next level?"

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DSB27MHP
• ISBN13: 9798888388341
• Release Date: January 2025
• Publisher: Finishing Line Press
• Length: 100 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"