The Shirt Weapon

Brandon Downing. Germ Press, $10 (82pp) ISBN 978-0-9709928-0-2

The Germ, a (near) annual magazine with an internationalist antiquarian edge and poets Andrew Maxwell and Macgregor Card at the helm, inaugurates its book publishing arm with Brandon Downing's The Shirt Weapon. If Pasternak's sister was life, Downing's in ""My Clear Sister"" hovers between states: ""My sister you make an incredible sound. I gather you in the house, and all is circular. I run from my ninth to my thirtieth year, From soundstage to a new climate: the bakery of death."" Across ""Red Texas,"" ""Bolivia"" and ""68 Quick Poems"" (""5 Shawn looks like Scott""), Downing's O'Hara-esque ear and ""Really long arrows, that smile, and frown"" carry his speaker through beautifully. (June)

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