Band Names & Other Poems

Davis (Tina) intersperses long lists of fake band names with more traditionally structured poems about humankind’s foibles in his charmingly skewed fourth collection. The band names include such winking nods and witty non sequiturs as “Trump Wall and the Mexico Pays,” “The Cast of Annie,” and “The Richard Blisters,” while in the more lyrical efforts Davis’s speaker makes baffling pronouncements and waxes poetic in bewildering statements that are open to various levels of interpretation. These include a lengthy warning against “touching stuff” and the comically redundant “‘The ocean radiator will not fit in the/ cargo hold,’ said my wife, who was trying/ to fit the ocean radiator in the cargo hold.” Davis’s poems spin around on themselves and turn inside out in clever and elusive ways. One hilarious, meandering poem reads like a grade school student trying to be profound while fulfilling a word count requirement, informing readers that “Some people work as teachers for a living/ but other people have different occupations” and “Predicting what/ a person might do is really hard without knowing/ the person and what circumstance that person/ is in, but sometimes a person can be somewhat predictable.” The quantity of band names may be excessive, but Davis’s strange, playful poems are sure to provoke curiosity and wonder. (Apr.)