Perfect score, 10 out of 10. A fantastic collection of poetry from the author who created Vanishing Monuments, a stunning novel of joy & sadness.

Standout poems in this collection for me are:

  • Selected Definitions of Junebat
  • War Wounds
  • Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Junebat
  • The Night After Flights of Cider
  • Evidence Disproving the Existence of a Junebat
  • America (I’m Putting My Queer Shoulder to the Wheel)
  • If You Could See Me You Would See

In “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Junebat”, I absolutely resonated with: “You are not your body unless / you are” and “You are not a boy or a girl unless / you are.” (section XI).

In one of my favorite poems, “America (I’m Putting My Queer Shoulder to the Wheel):

Despite the fear of the mortal danger
I grew bold in a way the system hated.
I decided that if this world was going
to kill me I’d die against the grain.
I decided that if America confronted me
with her rancid mouth screaming
I would stand as tall as her and scream back.