Willy Loman's Reckless Daughter or Living Truthfully Under Imaginary Circumstances

Death of a Salesman casts a theatrical shadow over this wildly thoughtful collection, Elizabeth A. I. Powell’s second after The Republic of Self, a New Issue First Book Prize winner. A Vermonter since 1989, her poems have appeared in Harvard Review, Sugarhouse Review, Ploughshares, the Pushcart Prize Anthology 2013, and other places. She teaches at Johnson State College and is editor of Green Mountains Review.

HOW TO SEW AN UNHEMMED DAY

Can you gather in sorrow’s excess stratosphere? Evenly baste
the sky’s regret? Do you know how to smock diminishment?
Embroider your way out? Have you a thimble? Check
in your little mending kit. Don’t despair to protect yourself,
how about scissors to sever the binding thread? Clearly
you’ve lost your instruction
book and pattern.

Soon the night will unstitch from the sky’s protective net,
this unrepairable blue, cloaking you in
blackness.

You won’t remember the smell of your hair,
the curve of your waist.
Where are your spectacles?

Stitch quickly,
before the swatch of aquamarine fades.

Reviewed by Matt Sutherland

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.

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