Fractured Humorous

Equal parts Joycean experimentalist, Nuyorican performance poet, New York School-style emoter and graphic concrete poet, Torres has been developing one of the most elaborate poetic hybrids around. In sets of time and site-specific poems (""Alaska:: five days/ with poets in snow""; ""Berlin:: three days/ with pen on mayakovsky lane""; ""Fracture:: one month/ with broken arm in bed""), Torres acts as Pied Piper to an incredible profusion of verbal and graphic tics across his perceptual continents. And as the title suggests, puns are the main lexical fault lines or, as one poem is titled, ""Torresian Revelation[s]."" The perhaps unfortunately titled ""Through the Looking Ass"" begins with typical Torresian jive: ""Waterbug boogaloo, picture screws/ backpack jonesy, poison toothy/ glitchy position ... hanging fringe/ along the organ (groan) & (purr)."" But the beat spittoon of the first stanza resolves miraculously into stark economic circumstance: ""Repairs: momentary disaster equals long term comfort/ Bathroom tiles seeking freedom/ are scattered on my floor, by the toilet/ a hole in my wall--as big as a cat."" ""Diana:: one day/ with sister in boston"" is divided into 19 short sections, each titled with ideogrammatic tags from ""Green Breeze"" to ""Blessing,"" resulting in a strange soup of domestic discomfort: ""A can of Goya beans for an older daughter/ wedged inside her pillowing sleep."" Overall, when compared to Torres's previous published work--three or so books (including Lung Poetry and SandHommeNomadNo"") and the CD ""Holy Kid""--this collection contains many more short lyrics exploring overtly emotional territory (""Explanatory Friday night: wigging out/ for mom"") but with bracing Torresian torque. This book will allow more readers happy access to ""the lockspur diction quelled of boys."" (Dec.)