New Life

Bozicˇevic (Joy of Missing Out) explores love, time, and dream imagery with sensuality and a droll edge in her whimsical latest. These poems consider loneliness versus intimacy, surrender versus resistance, and idealism versus reality, exhibiting how one’s emotions exist in a perpetual and necessary state of flux. Bozicˇevic renders the experience of all-consuming romance, the indelible marks of grief, and the restitution of humor for overwrought desire: “I see your face// in clouds & in stucco/ car alarms are bleating/ your name/ I stayed home/ & danced with a potato/ that looks like you.” Many of these poems evoke surrealist details: “When you left I sat on the curb/ Smoked one/ Then reached into my throat and/ Pulled out the moon/ Threw it into the trash and walked away.” At other times, she butters the banal with bittersweet sardonicism: “Your dream is the piece of toast you left in the toaster this/ morning.” Championing the confessional voice with dynamic lyricism, Bozicˇevic offers sonorous texture, rollicking conceits, and unparalleled vision. (Apr.)