Gabrielle Calvocoressi has crafted a collection of narrative poems that capture frozen moments of Americana, that ruminate on quintessential elements of that cultural spirit: fervent but hushed sexuality and the transformative capabilities of violence, even if the latter is expressed beautifully with the figure of Duk Koo Kim, in addition to Ruby Goldstein. "I love liked you liked Elvis loved pistols," says a "girl child" of another girl. The girl covets a saxophone and says to it, "Who cares if some boy held you first?". This book is Americana not held up stereotypes or easy concessions It embraces the full and shadowed spectrum of a country that pummels and denies itself, and that rallies and redeems itself through the microcosmic figures that exist within it. Here is the swagger and the sweat of common folk, and the unabashed unbuckling of the Bible Belt. ( )