Status Updates From Best Barbarian: Poems

"which is not unlike the beast, Grendel / coming out of the wild heaven into the hills / and halls of the mead house at the harpist's call / with absolute prophecy in his breast / and a desire for mercy, for a friend, an end"

no matter how many times I read the opening poem to this collection, the tenderness with which Reeves asks us to consider Grendel is unmatched

…. “Children
You were never meant to be human
You must be the grass
You must grow wildly over the graves”