On Foot, in Flames

Following a trajectory from apocalypse to redemption, Story Line press founder Robert McDowell's third collection invites readers to go ""into the writing where anything/ Can happen."" On Foot, in Flames is filled with ""a sweet sighing/ From the souls of trees"" and ""recollections of the days when you/ Surprised yourself with competence, even grace."" McDowell appeals to grace in part as a response to violence, as in his depiction of working in a slaughterhouse ""Stitched into gloves and apron,/ Lye-spattered, soaked with grease,/ I feed my machine 1,200 hides a day./ Sometimes I think this was the neck, this the tail"" or in three blank-verse monologues that witness, among other things, violence against women.