I feel vaguely guilty about this book, because I got it for free from Wave Books, because they were late getting some books I’d ordered sent out (Wave Books is a great publisher of contemporary poetry and I feel guilty about inconveniencing them and cutting into their margins; on the other hand… free poetry!).

This was my first time reading Lasky’s poetry and, at first, I found it a struggle. Not difficult, just not my kind of thing.

But I persevered and was pleasantly rewarded by a series of political and feminist explorations. Basically, I didn’t like the first two poems in the book, but thought everything else was pretty super awesome.

From ‘I Want to Be Dead’

I want to be dead
After all the ultimate act of self-indulgence is to be dead
Histrionic bareback

I will make one tiny objection, though. The fonts are terrible. Or rather, the titles of each poems are in a terrible, bold, gothic-y font that strains the eyes and take me out of the poem whenever my attention wanders to the top of the page.