small lives
In Gary Jackson’s stories-in-poems, superhumans of color navigate violence, visibility, and legacies in the fractured US.
Rather than battling traditional villains, Jackson’s superheroes—the Invincible Woman, the Telepath, and the Willpower Man—wrestle with identity, memory, trauma, and the oppressive weight of being “weapons to be / used, stars to be touched, [and] animals to be brought low.” Charged with protecting a world that decides who “qualifies as human,” these superheroes contend with the tension between exceptionalism and expendability.
Leading otherwise quotidian lives, the heroes experience hangovers, hookups, therapy sessions, and late-night stakeouts too. In “The Invincible Woman goes to a party,” pills and sex are a balm for the trauma of the morning; the heroine knows full well that “oblivion’s never been in [her] cards.” Elsewhere, the Telepath endures a microaggressive book club, while the Willpower Man steps over sleeping lovers to prepare for danger like it’s his 9-to-5. These ordinary encounters underscore the invisible labor of code-switching and self-erasure, implying that the heroes’ powers isolate rather than connect them. Pushing the superhero form in messier, more human directions is the book’s genius.
The narrative is directed at the audience, collapsing the distance between the observer and participant: “you always save the ones never meant to survive.” “You” becomes a stand-in for entire groups—Black and Asian people, superhumans, and survivors of state violence. Jackson rejects the luxury of situating the heroes and their powers within fantastical woes. Rather, he drags the “you’s” of the text into grief and impossible choices, daring them to stay. Herein, survival isn’t just a feat—it’s the only power that matters.
small lives is a daring poetry collection that fuses comic book myths with searing truths, asking what it means to be seen in a world that’s determined to forget you.
Reviewed by
Brooke Shannon
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
