Poems in your face, straight as a razor and right out of the blood-drenched reality of the daily news. Todd Moore, known for his multi-volume long poem on John Dillinger (which has been abandoned midstream by yet another publisher--this time Primal Publishing, two books into it, folded...), is also a master of the minimal shock poem, a no-bullshit arena where death, torture, and humiliation lurk behind drab midwestern facades. Gina Bergamino recreates Jack the Ripper, a modern-day reincarnation of the original who serves blood to unsuspecting guests in beer. In "Schizophrenic Baby", she details insanity; her protagonist smells quinine in the shower, envisions "a choir of angels" hovering over her in the hospital, and dwells on the abortions she endured before marriage. Much of the poetry here is impulsive, not unlike violence and insanity itself. AMERICAN CANNIBAL is stark realism. Not for the weak of stomach.--Kurt Nimmo
This review originally appeared in TapRoot Reviews #5,
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