 Popsugar Reading Challenge category: First of two books with the same title.
Wager, by Adele Elise Williams. My first preference for poetry is that it be understandable. Especially at the beginning of the book, I could tell she was talking about some form of trauma, but it wasn't clear to me what. I'm still not sure what the "wager" in the title refers to. The collection came together more for me with this one: I DON'T KNOW HOW TO WRITE PRETTY POEMS about being an addict. I keep trying but the moon won't show, and holy colors refuse their help. It is all puke and blah, sad mom and sad me and blah, blah and drunk sex, blah and the details are stark and dark and failures... Some of the poems use visual effects, like "Violence," in which the word "red" repeats over and over to form the shape of a gun. While a lot of the images are grim, some defiance and triumph shows through. My favorite poem in this volume was "Matriarchy": I come from a lineage of beast women. Women who cannot sleep at night but obliterate the day. Nana stole a stick shift in 1948. Mother walked a mile to and from school alone at age six. Epigenetics - it's not just genes that make us. The sea spray of the Gulf Coast can whittle a railroad tie into stale ribbon. We have an affinity for the underdogs, the crazy dogs, the dogs with one leg that bite and won't let go.
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