August Zero

Miller's ( American Odalisque ) text begins with poems that address the fin de siecle (`` . . . The twentieth century, begun in Vienna, has ended in California. / . . . gas meters on your left and electric meters on your right . . . ''), and proceeds to a sequence of love poems describing the relationship between two women in an unpredictable time. Though much of the narrative is elusive, often making reference to intimate details, several poems recall contemporary events. After a litany reviewing the eerie press coverage of the Gulf War, the speaker laments the failure of language to adequately convey human suffering: ``as I speak from a third-floor room the smell / throughout the city the country the region /carnal diarrhea & vegetal puke & mineral dry heave / no salt for tears no sea for sewage.'' Unfortunately, the shrill language she has chosen brings the reader no closer to the pain being described. In the end, the poems are constructed with neither enough technical agility nor adequate intellectual underpinning to break down the boundaries between language and being. (Oct.)