Joey Brown

The Feral Love Poems Joey Brown

Do not let the title fool you: The Feral Love Poems are not about love in the ordinary sense. They are masterful portraits of people and places in everyday moments, at their conflicted and laconic best. These pages are where "fields of mesquite pop phosphemic," and where impossible truths about the world rest. Brown turns the simple and everyday until the light catches its facets, showing us the glories of Oklahoma, Texas, and Missouri that random travelers miss. She causes us to love the need and craziness she appreciates: "sometimes when I drive, I say prayers for people who need them." These poems are a small way of sharing the voices she hears and the weight of the moments she feels, along with love, anger, hurt, pride, and redeemingly, the desperation to be heard. In poems like "Explaining Here to my Mother-in-Law," Brown teaches us how to draw others into our own feral loves. If you've never before thought of exploring these places, this book will make you want to leave today.