These poems build an affecting picture of working-class life in small-town America. Raylene and Skip live (and often feel stuck) in a town called Micah. Their lives have eroded over decades of marriage, but they have a bit of fight left in them. In poems that make clever use of direct and reported speech, we learn their secrets, flaws, and grudges. Pobo is a master of ironic twists and turns. In memorable metaphorical language, we get surprising glimpses into people's souls. Fathers are "men like cordoned-off hallways." After a violent argument over something trivial, "Skip becomes a saw / sawing the same wood block over and over," and Raylene is "an ice cube / melting at the bottom of an iced-tea glass." Frequently and with ease, Pobo sees into the depths of America's scam culture. Characterizing Raylene's knowledge of Skip's extramarital affairs, Pobo writes, "The plumbing / needs fixing--no one's trustworthy. / Someone will cheat you / the way you cheat others." Robert Cooperman's assessment of an earlier Pobo volume applies here as well: "This is a marvelous collection, one to savor with lines that are beautiful and true and just terrific poetry."
