In The Belly of the Albatross Cynthia Atkins

Cynthia Atkins

Irreverant

despair and the dry desert wind

perhaps more so

The wonderfully observational poems in Kevin Casey’s American Lotus remind us how separate we are from the natural world

In The Belly of the Albatross Cynthia AtkinsIn these moving poems, many of them dramatic monologues spoken by women, Patricia Caspers conjures up the lives of historical individuals a black slave midwife who "[gives] Justice her dowry," Amelia Earhart's mother, waiting hopefully for her daughter's return. And she reimagines the figures of Greek and Hebrew legend the Gorgon who begs for "the gift of monstrosity," the biblical Ruth, revealing a sensuality the Bible does not allow her. She also