Grit: Poems by Silas Denver Melvin - Sunday Mornings At The River

nGrit opens with a quiet devastation reserved for transcendent realms of human experience-the act of becoming in a world that is not prepared for your existence. Silas' words dart in and out like a scalpel revealing layers of flesh that have been given-or taken-by lovers, parents, cruelty, and fate. If you could hold what it means to be an outsider in your hand, and kiss all of its wounds you would begin to understand Grit.

But know that holding Silas, in this volume, is to be laid out in a field of snow dressed in black, with blood dripping from the corner of your mouth, laughing.

• Sean Felix, author of Did You Even Know I Was Here?Grit is more than a collection of poetry by the hand of a gifted young author. Grit is a transgender coming of age story. There are no beautiful rainbows here, no whispers, but raw cries from somewhere primal.