Death Styles

A record of daily bewilderments and accidental concessions to hope after a momentous loss, featuring John Waters, Divine, and Mad King Ludwig II of Bavaria (the 'Swan King'), in this powerful follow-up to Joyelle McSweeney's award-winning collection Toxicon & Arachne I want that green possibilitythe gravidity of late stylepregnant with self-possessionto spring me to the end of the plotMeanwhile I dream of Iphigeniaand how many times that teen can dropin her altar topWhen my teens are doing nothingthey are doing dance moves off TikToktheir brainwaves alteringlike the ones with wandswho wave the planes downand meanwhile I blow too muchdough on the baby's summerclothes. Ohwell, if he wears it just once*(*in the grave), then it's worth it.I say the secret thoughtin my brain like a sparkIt lays down and snuffsin the mossbane of the earbone.It dies a crib death.Bring me my toy stethoscope. No,I can detect nothing. Two beer canson a cord? No. Radio silence.--from '5.6.21 terminator 2, late style' 'McSweeney is one of our most dynamic poets' Nick Ropatrazone, The Millions'I've never read anything by Joyelle McSweeney that wasn't totally exciting' Dennis CooperOne of LitHub's Most Anticipated Books for 2024In this follow-up to her award-winning collection, Toxicon and Arachne, Joyelle McSweeney proposes a link between style and survival, even in the gravest of circumstances. Setting herself the task of writing a poem a day and accepting a single icon as her starting point, however unlikely - River Phoenix, Mary Magdalene, a backyard skunk - McSweeney follows each inspiration to the point of exhaustion and makes it through each difficult day. In frank, mesmeric lyrics, Death Styles navigates the opposing forces of survival and grief, finding a way to press against death's interface, to step the wrong way out of the grave.