ALT The luster of her roses was the envy of the neighborhood. Every edge was freshly painted. Every lawn was perfectly regular. She inhaled deeply, savoring the scent, as the lively petals danced. The unhoused knew to stay away. The rumors traveled fast. Every edge was freshly painted. Every lawn was perfectly regular. She let the hunger grow for months before deciding when to strike. The unhoused knew to stay away. The rumors traveled fast. To guard the family recipe, she never gardened during the day. She let the hunger grow for months before deciding when to strike. She lowered the harvest into the chipper, fingers last of all. To guard the family recipe, she never gardened during the day. You can hear her singing softly to her darlings in the night. She lowered the harvest into the chipper, fingers last of all. She inhaled deeply, savoring the scent, as the lively petals danced. You can hear her singing softly to her darlings in the night. The luster of her roses was the envy ...

ALT Dillard’s style is often direct and vivid, but does not shy away from the abstract and surreal; he uses several techniques to defamiliarize quotidian detail—reminiscent of Charles Simic—that are well-matched to content. Perhaps the most striking example of this is a poem titled after an abstraction, “The Newness,” that is tightly composed around imagery of toilets. Dillard opens with a realist declarative sentence: “Sometimes you have to get rid of a toilet.” From there, he guides readers using a mixture of imaginative detail (“Do you know how easy a toilet shatters / under one sledgehammer swing?”) and carefully-enjambed revelation (“it’s like / when you died and, after, I broke / your life apart”), all of which culminate in a changed way of seeing: Now when I go for walks I wonder where a toilet would fit in. I wonder, if you were here, what new place you would pick to abandon.

ALT Regardless of which illusion is targeted, Carter’s work points continually towards acceptance: of self and others; of the natural world’s dangerous beauty; of the ugly necessities of survival. As the speaker of “Interloper” states: “I want to find a way to belong in this wilderness. / Even if it is to feed its beasts of prey” (39). In an increasingly holographic world—social media feeds, manufactured consent in mass media, unrealistic pornography, AI-generated facsimiles of human creativity, and more—work such as Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing is a welcome reminder that authentic vulnerability’s reward is worth the risk.

ALT May the longest day stretch possibility May the shortest life stimulate urgency