The Pretend Life channels the lure of the past and a sense of foreboding about the unknowable future.
In this neon-lit darkness, the poems perform a peculiar alchemy that transforms the background noise of Americ.
The poems document the mundane landscape of contemporary Life -- a world in which Jimmy Carter speaks of a spiritual malaise, a landscape littered with dying retail stories, chain restaurants, and malls, one of trash-strewn streets lined with liquor stores and pawn shops.
The Pretend Life channels the lure of the past and a sense of foreboding about the unknowable future