In the Garden of Broken Things by Mercedes Lucero Flutter Press — $5.75 (Print) Poetry (Chapbook)
Knowing that, statistically speaking, there is someone living in the world who looks exactly like you. Knowing they could be suffering. Knowing that you will most likely never meet them. Losing even more things. Almost losing people and then losing people. Realizing there are so many ways to die and then realizing moments later, there are so many ways to live.
Bodies merge and drift apart, solidify and falter, and, most poignantly, revel in their imperfections in In the Garden of Broken Things. These pieces leave readers adrift in a maze of assorted ephemera on a cosmic scale. But rather than puzzle, Lucero deftly leads us through these character’s complicated and intimate lives filled with longing, loss, and continuing forward amidst unpredictable yet promising futures. (Alyse Bensel)
