Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry - John Murillo

nJohn Murillo's second book is a reflective look at the legacy of institutional, accepted violence against Blacks and Latinos and the personal and societal wreckage wrought by long histories of subjugation. A sparrow trapped in a car window evokes a mother battered by a father's fists; a workout at an iron gym recalls a long-ago mentor who pushed the speaker to become something unbreakable. The presence of these and poetic forbears--Gil Scott-Heron, Yusef Komunyakaa--provide a context for strength in the face of danger and anger.

At the heart of the book is a sonnet crown triggered by the shooting deaths of three Brooklyn men that becomes an extended meditation on the history of racial injustice and the notion of payback as a form of justice.