This collection is organized around the idea of traditional music of India, but like all traditions, is thick with our collective pasts and presents. When they zoom out, the poems engage world religions, arts and sciences to frame our experience; then they zoom in on a Paul McCartney look-alike, a glass eye, the saltiness of skin and butter. Borsenik's lifework in medicine informs the language of the body: "Jutting outline of scapula, /geometry of muscles rising/to meet fire-branded hair." These meditative poems are part directive, part observation, part instruction manual, part call-and-response. They breathe human life into the loneliness of a planet, and draw a line from the paleontology of dinosaur bones to the contemporary struggle. The emotional range of the collection is vast, from existential sorrow, "Each Man/dies so alone. The origami/of orrery, of living" to fierce validation, "When the son of a motherless goat/tries to silence you, go full-throat, /full-throttle, head high and balls out." With wordplay, humor and witness, Borsenik offers us a brave plan: "Me? I'll barefoot the rails/after they've cooled, /a balancing act of foolhardiness/and faith, caution left hanging/in the long morning, distant/whistle moonlighting as map."

--Karen Schubert, Director, Lit Youngstown,
Coordinator, Power of the Arts