cover image ASYLUM

ASYLUM

Quan Barry, . . Univ. of Pittsburgh, $12.95 (72pp) ISBN 978-0-8229-5769-0

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.)