Alt-Nature

The thoughtful and powerful debut collection from Morgan vividly depicts the American Southwest, with a focus on the sensory experience of deserts: “Now in coming between one desert/ and another, I recognize the edges, parting and clear.... Only deserts witness the slow and complete life of water.// A story of chassis. And foraged box springs.// The one sound offered wandering night without horizon.// Each exceeds its genre while remaining truly intact” (“Dearth-Light”). Elsewhere, anecdotal moments foreground the collection’s reflections on language, militarism, and the environment: “My dad shared this story.// He arrived, an Army recruiter, to pick up a new enlistee. A Native kid outside Albuquerque. Everyone in the house began to cry. More people arrived, filling the tight space, and they cried too. Before long my dad was crying with them.// I asked him what had he been crying for. And he looked at me like I was a fool.” Morgan skillfully weaves together landscapes, nuanced reflections on Black and queer identity, and social and ecological commentary in these stirring pages. (Feb.)