Death of the First Idea

Laurentiis’s visionary sophomore outing (after Boy with Thorn) showcases her incredible lyric range and incisive commentary. At its core, the collection charts a 10-year period from 2015 to 2025 chronicling the speaker’s gender transition; along the way, the poems address the speaker’s political awakening in an era of pandemic, violence, and struggle against pervasive anti-Blackness. Of stereotypical double standards on self-presentation, Laurentiis writes, “Funny/ How some dark will move illicit if you close your eyes,/ the way, say, my black/ Pleasure is named too explicit for a page, but this menace/ I put in it is not.” A long poem of witness reflects on the speaker’s 2016 visit to Palestine, where her experience radically expands her sense of solidarity with a shared movement for global liberation: “every Checkpoint a cold, ribbed, caged,/ Conduit: Chattel turnstile, guarded by/ artillery fire. This is what I saw.” Moments of joy and pleasure abound, too, especially in the erotic: “I like the specifically wet pink of my lips/ Before a kiss, or after biting them/ Anytime I’m thinking or nearness ends.” This generous and perceptive collection thrills. (Sept.)