Panic Attack, U.S.A. by Nate Slawson

"Thank the poetry gods that Nate Slawson writes with a hard-on."

- Peter Markus

You almost don't want to say too much about Slawson's work, for fear it'd take away from what his poems accomplish. As Markus makes clear, this book is not lighthearted. It's hard-hitting love confessions in inventive language, and I was struck by the effortless way Slawson gives so many words new purpose and therefore an atomic kind of energy. The whole book might as well be on fire, really.

I wish you'd say
something when I
key your name into
my neck
when I say slow
songs and cherry bombs
like so many teeth
squeezed into the shotgun
of my jaw

These poems are the opposite of flower metaphors and pink love. Read this book.