cover image Broken Helix

Broken Helix

Dina Ben-Lev. Mid-List Press, $11 (70pp) ISBN 978-0-922811-31-1

""Everybody's heads are turning/ to their tasks"" writes Ben-Lev, in this first collection, winner of the publisher's 1996 First Series Award for Poetry. Her task is to make sense of the world she lives in, and the one she was born into: ""Down in deepest Florida, in a hospital/ winged with a sanatorium, you named me Cheryl./ Then signed me away."" The more effective poems in this collection deal with her abandonment as a newborn by her young mother, her subsequent adoption and thoughts on both these fundamental events. ""The Adopted Daughter's Lucky Loop"" chronicles the path of adoption from beginning (""Lucky she had the good sense/ to give you up. Lucky we had love/ and love to spare"") to end (""In our house we hoped/ we'd never find you in her/ unfortunate fix. With luck/ we'd keep you/ from feeling the loss/ of a wonderful bundle like you.""). For the poet, the helix, home to our genetic material, has been broken, a discontinuity reflected in the world of power and politics (""I'm coughing/ more than I used to: fumes from the factories/ Fill up my yard""). Nevertheless, she clings to the optimism of simple pleasures: ""So the sperm count's down/ Worldwide, the economy ails. But if bread's/ In the toaster, strawberry on the spoon/ There's something to savor."" To her poetic investigations of her own place in the world, Ben-Lev brings an immediate, conversational language. (May)