We Can't Ever Do This Again

Amber McMillan

Image | Book Cover: We Can't Ever Do This Again by Amber McMillan

(Wolsak & Wynn)

A blind boy comforts himself with a telephone's dial tone and later becomes an international prankster. The discovery of a fox crucified in a toolshed prefigures the breakdown of a close relationship. McMillan's poems render both the public and the intimate with uncanny precision. They show us how these two worlds influence and invade one another. The flux and flicker of private memories are captured and projected brightly onto a shared, communal space. This is an adroit poetry that moves beyond confession; rather, it first stands witness, and then records, and then transmits its experiences to us like a gift. (From Wolsak & Wynn)