The Air in the Air Behind It

<div>'With an eye roving like a documentary camera Brandon Rushton delivers a post-wonder diorama of the contemporary non-urban United States in which the vaunted American lawn is artificial; the food is full of chemicals; and what haven't we / homogenized. The freedoms of childhood and adolescence are figured here as a kind of lost damaged paradise before everyone erases themselves into their adult roles: the contractor the customer the detective the pilot the bank teller the embezzler the broker the milkshake maker. Rushton's often interweaving lines serve as a formal objective correlative for our interwoven state in this world which is composed of both the given and the made; the question of why on earth we have chosen what we have made is quietly fuming in every poem. Honestly the people / had hoped for more space / to feel spectacular. The news about that spectacular feeling isn't good but knowing Rushton is out there watching giving a damn and writing his beautiful poems is reason for hope.'<br> -Donna Stonecipher</div>