Sex & Violence

By Kristy Bowen

Kristy Bowen is a master of conjuring the treacheries of femininity. In sex & violence, she draws upon such diverse sources as Plath's Ariel poems (here collaged piece by piece to make her own poems so much stranger, and newer, and hauntingly " eerie," as in the absence of the missing, familiar words, and the missing, familiar woman) and, to conjure the contrary, poems set to dumb blonde jokes, where the result of two blondes " fall(ing) down a hole" is that " the wishbone of their throats harbor tiny fish and assorted birdery" and that, after murder, their bodies can be found " placed so careful in their beds each morning." Here is a book to beware of, dear reader. You'll find yourself trapped inside Bowen's " enormous wedding cake-- a claustrophobic swirl of sugar and lace," with " Horses and house fires" placed right next to it, and in its feverish dream of kisses and ruin, you won't want to ever escape. -- Gillian Cummings

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 162557813X
• ISBN13: 9781625578136
• Release Date: April 2020
• Publisher: Black Lawrence Press
• Length: 94 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.4" x 8.4"