Somebody Should Kiss You

Julia Creet is a graduate student at the University of California, Santa
Cruz.

This is Toronto writer Brooks’s first collection of poetry. Playful
and passionate, it reads like a first kiss that promises much more to
come. This book of lesbian love poems seldom indulges in the common
metaphors of sweet peaches and bitter pits, but reaches instead for the
harder edges and the unexpected turn of phrase. From “Help me”:
“My mind’s a slum / about you honey . . . how filthy i am with /
conspicuous desire . . . What wouldn’t i do / to move in close / to
get some intimate grime on you.”

The poems reel slightly out of control, defying tenderness: “don’t
/ love me / sweetly / or get warm / & reassured / when you / see me”;
instead, they invite the reader to imagine recklessness. “Where Will
All Your Good Intentions Be Then?” asks the title of a poem that
conjures up the commentary of Jane Bowles at a café scene of seduction:
“and you hear yourself / gladly have the waiter clear away the remains
of your / dignity and purpose to / make room for her.”

Four of the poems in this collection were previously published in a
1989 volume edited by Lee Fleming, By Word of Mouth. These poems, which
are more narrative in style, do not stand up so well beside the
quickness of rhythm and thought that characterize Brooks’s newer
writing.