Fireworks Are Just Pretty Bombs

I'm dying to believeIn the ghost of the goodnessYou strangledSo many years agoAnd in the thin rattle of hopeThat beats likeA newborn butterfly's wingsInside my fractured heart ...-'Tis of TheeFIREWORKS ARE JUST PRETTY BOMBS (& OTHER POEMS) is the debut chapbook from established novelist J. L. Long. From the volatile mix of longing and loathing explored in the title poem to the bold defiance in poems such as Burn Down Everything You Love and I'll Give You Something to Be Afraid Of and from the quiet broken prayer of Merciful to the heartfelt ode to community found in Little Brother this poetry collection explores the full gamut of human emotion and experience. Life and death love and grief gender and sexuality faith and despair: You will find all of these and more within these pages.