As technology and consumerism inch to the forefront of society, I Was Bonnie and Clyde illuminates small collisions between life and death.
In Laura Kasischke’s new collection, every moment contains an infinity: the mundane in the monumental, and the monumental in the mundane. As technology and consumerism inch to the forefront of society, I Was Bonnie and Clyde illuminates small collisions between life and death, from “The worm in the grave of JFK” to “the mole hauled out of the ground / by the dog to die in the sun.” Ghosts, both real and imagined, haunt and heighten these poems. Calling upon the weariness of Peter Rabbit, the poetry of Bonnie Parker, and the electrocution of Topsy the elephant, Kasischke evokes history and tragedy with a quiet, conversational reverence. Through their repetitions, their exclamations, and their laments, these poems serve as both mirror and reflection, reaching out as the reader gazes in.
