Jaw by Albert Abonado

Abonado’s debut collection Jaw plays with the world and the self. It’s very funny, but not flippant. The poems are infused with family and love and history and identity, the stuff that matters. Abonado dives into his Philippine background through family stories (his section on Tito Manuel is one of my favorite sections in the book) and through his corresponding tinge of outsiderness. In a particularly fun section of the book, Abonado talks with Harold & Kumar, from the campy 00’s movies. And that absurd intersection of reality and fantasy is the book in a nutshell. Buy here.

From “Frederick Douglass: A Triptych”

Frederick Douglass is on fire. You try / to tell him that he is on fire, but he / insists this is how he has always been, / that he has been building a sun one / room at a time . . .

From “Tito Manuel Builds a Snare for Sparrows”

A good trap has roots / in the dead. // Find fishing line to bind / a birddog to its hungers, a loop / small enough for a knuckle. // How many meals have you eaten / that did not contain an omission?

From “The Future is Now and It is Adorable”

One day kittens could become a major currency, / every country trading these adorable balls of fur / for potatoes or Camaros. This is very possible, Harold! / One day we will have to carry large sacks / that are always meowing about the tight / spaces in which we have crammed them, the very / hot conditions. I sweat just thinking about / all of these kittens and how they will try to crawl / out of our sacks and we will have to press / their disappointed faces back into these deep / burlap bags where they may tumble around / for hours. That day could be tomorrow . . .

From “The 8th Day”

And on the 8th day, God said let there be / Spam and white rice and a fried egg on top // of all that because God knew that shit tastes / holy and the Lord always enters through // the mouth first. . .