Leaves Surface Like Skin

In Leaves Surface Like Skin Michelle Menting articulates gorgeous strange visions of nature inflected by human interference. A forest is interrupted by a graveyard of Bobs Big Boy statuettes; ruling cockroaches populate a nuclear fall-out film; lichen becomes litter; a horse and farrier practice their choreography as he let[s] her lean on him her hips cocked almost delicate. These poems teem with litany landscape literal and figurative image; an awareness of mortality hovers not so much afterlife as underlife. Menting has a gift for moody and luminous phrasing: For some the world is wood tick wicked. Theres magic to a collection that does such heavy lifting with a light touch. --Sandra Beasley