CAN I TELL YOU SOMETHING?

Flores’ latest collection of poems takes a hard look at the beauty and brutality of one’s innermost thoughts.

The author creates a relief map of physical and emotional scars in these poems. But despite their darkness and depth, their power lies less in their evocative word craft than in their unifying moments of honesty. Frequently funny and always poignant confessions are found throughout the work, echoing in such lines as “Why does Time forget our fun days, but preserve our shame?” The most powerful offering here may be “Give Me A Bad Grave,” a heartfelt exploration of an irreverent life: “I want to earn the worst grave ever owned. / … / I want to change so much I cannot be recognized. / … / If earth is mostly water, life isn’t about the rocks you save. / I have tears on my stop sign, my neighbor has diamonds on his grave.” Although much of the compilation is characterized by gritty exuberance, there’s plenty of self-loathing and despair, and themes of depression and suicide, physical violence, and empty sex recur throughout. In his poems, the author journeys through pain and resilience, including reflections on learning and art, excess and degradation, and the fragility of the human body, only to conclude with “The Digital Age”—a brilliant challenge to all of his previous assumptions. Some readers will be disturbed by some of the collection’s vivid and often lurid images, however, and although the verses are often exquisitely crafted, there are occasional lines in which rhymes feel forced, which detracts from the overall content.

An alternately humorous and heartbreaking ode to life’s difficulties.