Poems In Which I Am Chopped Up, Stepped On, and Sleep Deprived

by Zack Rearick

The voice of the speaker in Zack Rearick's debut chapbook is able to be lyrical and conversational, even humorously self-deprecating. It reads as though it was effortless to write, but the poems are dangerous and intimate. The collection is a crescendo, developing to its final poem, “Nightmare Girl.” Poems in Which I am Stepped On is confessional poetry in the spirit of a contemporary Plath or even more, Anne Sexton, who the collection makes reference to several times. In the hands of a lesser poet, this connection might read as melodrama or an exercise in self-pity, but this is a snapshot of a poet's construction of self through others. Those others might be ex-girlfriends who were more like “new sisters” or characters from film, but the question that seems to be an unspoken through line is “what if I loved you?” Ultimately, Poems in Which I am Stepped on, Chopped up, and Sleep Deprived is equal parts sass and sorrow, boldness and brilliance.

31 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 13, 2013