Wings in Time

Garnet devotes her debut to memories, many of them centered on the strange and changing pull of media, and the ways in which remembrances shift and recirculate over time. Longer poems document obsessions (she writes with panache and humor about browsing video stores, and the delight of the films within them), while there is bite to her shorter visions, such as the brief poem "Hospitality": "It%E2%80%99s important to me that I age/ into a woman of power.// The dowager strokes the terrier, & is not barred from snooping// into any of the Wings/ of human experience." The motif of wings is recycled elsewhere, including in the title poem: "In Eric%E2%80%99s latest missive is a tercet that chills me to the roots of my hair. / Every mother is famous / And hated if they don%E2%80%99t beat their / Wings in time with the infant." In the short poem "AirBnB," she writes, "I adjust to a house by taking the trash out barefoot/ Bringing its nervous system down/ To low hum." Garnet%E2%80%99s fresh, unapologetic voice offers a panoply of particularities and surprises that are hard to forget. (Sept.)