Two Brown Dots

The debut from Quintos explores with humor and vulnerability the immigrant Asian American experience of growing up in Kentucky and navigating American culture. Quintos begins in childhood, blending cultural touchstones of the '90s, "flashlight-reading/ the CD booklet/ to Jagged Little Pill," with religious rituals of Sunday mass and confession. There is a wide-eyed awareness running throughout that elevates life's ordinary moments into something transcendent and powerful. As the poems progress, so too does a sense of the emptiness at the heart of American life: "I confessed sins in a wooden phone booth/ without a phone." These poems grow in scope and theme, attempting to make sense of an assimilationist world: "What else can I do but try/ & keep this body satisfied." This act of questioning turns to wonder at the onset of motherhood: "Oh body, how/ you keep on making." Love and tenderness are placed alongside anger at consistently attempting to subvert stereotypes, to "stand on legs/ like immovable trees." Throughout, Quintos never forgets her family, "their names so full of poetry." At its core, this strong collection aches with longing for a more compassionate and accountable world. (Apr.)