In this debut poetry collection, a single speaker tries to control her
body and negotiate her time with digital devices, all the while
navigating identities, impulses, and relationships that are often in
tension.
Metabolics, a book-length poem, borrows the movements of metabolic
pathways to consider how nature accomplishes both balance and deep
transformation. In visual figures and prose blocks that bridge the
divide between poetry and nonfiction, Jessica E. Johnson employs
scientific idioms to construct an allegory about a family in the Pacific
Northwest. The region becomes a character in its own right, with cedars,
moss, and heavy cloud knitting the mother, father, boy, and girl into
their setting.
This far-reaching volume also serves as a study of the ecologies of
contemporary parenting, with adults and children affected by "feeds"
both on screen and off as their bodies metabolize food, the environment,
and excess feelings such as rage. From climate change to kombucha to
smartphones and curated produce, the smallest details of daily life in
"Plasticland" catalyze a larger examination of selfhood: "Despite so
many attempts to resolve this tension, sometimes you are you and also
sometimes mother just as light can be both particle and wave."
