The title provides apt description of the mood and content of these poems which, as the back cover blurb states, are "flashbacks of a chaotic internal revolution called Growing Up Male." The poems are driven by frustration and fascination with the sexuality of an aging man and his observations on consumer- and youth-oriented society. Content and language are often sensual. A few of the poems rhyme, but the rhyme is never overbearing. "Fashion" is on of the shortest poems and is somewhat representative: "I used to make/ love more often/ than I wore a tie." Even though you probably won't think about them much afterward, these poems are accessible, relevant to other people, and fun to read.--Mike Gill
This review originally appeared in TapRoot Reviews #4,
Contact the editor, luigi-bob drake, at Burning Press
Copyright Burning Press 1994, 1995.