The Grace of Black Mothers

The formally inventive debut by Perkins celebrates Black women who strive to keep families together. At the heart of the collection, Perkins explores the connection between a fictionalized version of himself and his single mother, the two of whom “raised each other with cockroach cardboard walls, playing hopscotch homes.” Many poems take unique forms such as pro/con lists, one-act plays, erasures, and collages of language and image. A poem titled “Captions for Pictures Lost in Storage” is a powerful exercise in restraint, featuring blank space where those lost images might have been and captions that movingly illustrate the relationship between mother and son: “Christmas 2009. Mar Mar is seven. Still into Star Wars!! I got him Mace Windu’s lightsaber because I like purple. Didn’t know it made noises though ): Kept me up all night, but my baby is happy!!” A wry, self-aware humor pervades “Verdict,” in which the speaker ponders how race informs his writing: “I came this close to Neo Pastoralism—/ to birds in every line that may or may not/ symbolize cagelessness and virginity./ But the picture box stamped/ ‘Black’ on my tongue and ears.” This evocative collection signals the arrival of a bold new voice. (July)