Abby E. Murray published this slim volume (29 pages) of poetry in 2018. You can find it at www.finishinglinepress.com.
The poetry inside is by turns gentle and brutal, not in a physical way, but mentally, in the tension between reality, beliefs, and custom. This book has many moments where the rigid expectations of military culture smash against the poet’s solid beliefs and personal integrity, like waves crashing on recalcitrant boulders.
The poet writes a sharp hook, drawing you into a poem and keeping you there to its end:
By the time we move to a seventh city
I am portable as a jug of water,
Another one, I hand it to you like a single potato chip:
To sit in the simulated living space at Ikea
is to know what sand knows
as it rests inside the oyster.
You must continue where they lead you.
The poet paints in colors muted by time and despair and switches palettes to whimsy and joy.
They paint vignettes, portraits in miniature, and the insides of heads.
Page to page this book surprises you, and that’s the best thing poetry can do.
Abby E. Murray is the 2019-2021 Poet Laureate for the city of Tacoma, Washington. They are the editor-publisher of Collateral, an online journal about violent conflict and military service. Their latest book is Hail and Farewell, published by Perugia Press.