Exhibit

by Paul Zits

Margaret is unlike other her hands bark, she speaks Hawaiian Punch, and she can often be seen prodding at stars with sticks. And sometimes she is the happiest woman in the a pillow with a pillowcase. Her brother, Alex, feels pleasant enough, except that his parts are made of wood, and that a bunch of his hair is electrified. And then there are the gun-shot wounds to his head and chest. On this final ailment, Margaret may have had a hand.

In the winter of 1926, Margaret McPhail went on trial for the murder of Alex, and throughout, maintained her innocence. Exhibit, more than a poetic retelling of her trial, chronicles the path to a verdict, misstep by misstep. Brother and sister become somewhat knotted aberrations, grotesqueries that are at times monstrous and at others quite stunning, at times sickly and at others impressive in their strength.

Folded into these poems, helping to give them their current, at times strange and potent vision, are cuts from a broad variety of sources, including, to name only a few, interviews with Catherine Robbe-Grillet and Eileen Myles, English and Russian fairy tales, and articles on the history of feminist film.

Genres: Poetry

116 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 31, 2019

About the author

Paul Zits received his MA in English from the University of Calgary in 2010. His creative dissertation, and first book, Massacre Street (University of Alberta Press, 2014), won the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry at the 2014 Alberta Literary Awards.

His second book, Leap-seconds (Insomniac Press, 2017), won the 2016 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry.

Exhibit, which won the Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry in 2020, explores the trial of Margaret McPhail, accused of the murder of her brother in the winter of 1926.

His latest collection, I Wish I Could be Peter Falk (2022), is described as a "nuanced exploration of modern masculinity and a warning of the dangers that persist when the commodification of gender goes unchecked."

Zits is a Calgary-based secondary teacher.

Reviews

[Tyler Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most visceral books of poetry I’ve read. The images in these poems will creep into your brain and then wriggle around under your skin and in your guts. Zits has created a nightmarish world through his distinctly creative manipulations of language, uses of repetition, and sensory details, all rooted in the factual case of family, psychological unrest, and murder.

[Maryam]

I love poems with black cats in them.