so with a lovely voice, keen images, and perfect comic timing. Brown is able to write desire and fulfillment through multiple forms—whether villanelle, pantoum, sestina, or free-verse lyric. The beauty of this collection’s technique lies in the nuance of details: the “hands neatly folded in her lap / like wedding napkins, not in prayer;” the “skin like a drawing under tracing;” and when “the spider slips / past a slack lip and you swallow / him whole.” That’s how this wonderful work takes on the world—in a quiet devouring.

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