You Are Not Who You Claim

Laurence Steven is Chairman of the English Department at Laurentian
University and author of Dissociation and Wholeness in Patrick White’s
Fiction.

Lau’s poems focus on themes of emotional breakdown: confusion,
loneliness, hatred, and pain, and of society’s corruption and failure
to protect its people. The poems are autobiographical and serve as part
of her rehabilitation from prostitution and drug abuse. The style is
free verse/prose. She uses run-on sentences that at times are
incoherent, and create confusion that parallels her own.

Lau’s collection is both compelling and disturbing. Given the
hardships she endured at only 18 years of age, it is not surprising to
encounter harsh depictions of humankind or harsh judgments of people who
have been a part of her life on the streets. The poems’ metaphors and
similes enunciate her anger and frustration with society. The images are
often dark and painful, or depressing as in “An Afternoon
Cappuccino” where she writes, “I sit here stirring this insipid
coffee / with its soggy foam that just / disappears.” Though one may
initially sympathize with Lau, after a while her depressive mood can
become overbearing and, ultimately, offensive. And this may be her
intent: to anger and, hence, to compel us to self-examination as well as
re-examination of the world we live in.

Lau’s poetry, in both its harshness and its truthfulness, makes a
strong social statement. Her honesty is to be admired.