In The Belly of the Albatross The gutted and the mute

The gutted and the mute fall silent

Irreverant

author of Night Ladder

despair and the dry desert wind

The wonderfully observational poems in Kevin Casey’s American Lotus remind us how separate we are from the natural world

In The Belly of the Albatross The gutted and the muteIn these moving poems, many of them dramatic monologues spoken by women, Patricia Caspers conjures up the lives of historical individuals a black slave midwife who "[gives] Justice her dowry," Amelia Earhart's mother, waiting hopefully for her daughter's return. And she reimagines the figures of Greek and Hebrew legend the Gorgon who begs for "the gift of monstrosity," the biblical Ruth, revealing a sensuality the Bible does not allow her. She also