A Crash of Rhinos

by Rekdal, Paisley

• ISBN13: 9780820322735
• ISBN10: 0820322733
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr

Summary

In these quizzically probing and provocative poems, atoms and torture, tattoos and laundromats, mug shots, the theory of light, and such personalities as Joe Louis and Bruce Lee join in shaping a simultaneously personal and historical narrative of love, family, and desire. The tension between the public and the private saturates these poems with a breathless energy that carries the reader through Rekdal's self-aware depiction of American culture and romance, complete with Harlequin romance novels and an account of her parents' courtship. Though Rekdal delights in turning traditional images of love upside down, what she finally offers is a grateful and graceful view of humanity, which convinces us that, as she says in "Convocation": "Nothing is a single moment . . . / No private event lacks history."

Author Biography

Paisley Rekdal teaches at the University of Wyoming.

Table of Contents

acknowledgments	ix
invocation	1	(4)
PART I
a crash of rhinos	5	(2)
the history of the slow dance	7	(2)
love phones	9	(7)
the structure of pluto	16	(5)
PART II
rogue's gallery	21	(2)
bodice ripper: romance with subtext	23	(2)
crescent down works factory	25	(2)
the night my mother meets bruce lee	27	(2)
you're sick, jesse ... sick, sick, sick	29	(3)
captain cook in tahiti discovers tattooing: an event that has subtle but important consequences for my parents and myself	32	(9)
PART III
on getting a dog and being told that what i really want is a child	41	(2)
night sweeper	43	(4)
drink me	47	(2)
joe louis and the war effort, or how my grandfather acquired the laundromat	49	(4)
other people's success	53	(4)
PART IV
convocation	57	(5)
fire	62	(2)
making out in korean	64