ASYLUM

U.S. nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll, children born of Vietnamese women raped by American soldiers (and those born deformed by Agent Orange) and the effects of syphilis are matched by a willing vitriol, vengefulness and accusations in Barry's speakers. A University of Wisconsin assistant English professor and former Wallace Stegner Fellow, Barry sharpens these apostrophes with rich images deftly drawn in a cold, honed poetry: "Even here in this city of a white house, you dream of clouds/ sprouting like black lungs." (Sept.)