Is it the cuisine that makes a life?
Does any of it matter?
We’ll all be dead in the end
Or is it the good that is done
The lives that you change, maybe even save
Is it standing up when no one else will?

– Nicole Noblet

Who Is the Baby and Where Is He Now?

Everyone’s routine is different—some of us wake up in the morning to “help Pa milk the Iguanas” (“In the World”). Others spend time questioning the mysteries of the world, remembering, practicing resistance: “Slowly but surely I love harder than I can hardly ever hate” (“Peace”). In Who Is the Baby and Where Is He Now?, the authors ruminate on what is invisible and what we can see: “I saw the stars / Seven / And the moon / And the corn down / And the hill up / In my dream, that one. / I’m a dreamer now” (“Happy Thought”). This book contains loss, victory, and the firm assertion that “I don’t want anyone telling me what to do / I decide what I do” (“Don’t”).

 

← Book 55	Summer 2020 →