My friend
on the phone: it doesn’t get better, it just gets
bad in other ways.
— from “The Year Annie Lennox Released Why“
Life is life, and that’s just about it. Some things happen. Some don’t. Either way, we carry on. We don’t really make wishes for the future because in the end, it’s not really our choice. Sometimes there’s a God, and sometimes, just god. But we are not “fine, just napping”.
Aaron Smith’s The Book of Daniel (University of Pittsburgh Press) is swimming inside celebrities – or the wont to have them swimming 360 inside you. It’s the feeling that when life matters most, sometimes you have to take a detour because fuck life. It’s a headfirst take on being simply yourself in a sardonic world that wants to throw cancer and queer and God’s erect penis at you like they are insults.
Don’t expect a soft ride through this collection, because in this world, “Honey, here you are with a toothpick / when what’s required is a meat cleaver”.
Purchase your copy of The Book of Daniel from University of Pittsburgh Press.