Prime

Melanie Marttila is a Sudbury-based freelance writer and writing
consultant.

The poems in this debut collection explore a woman’s experiences of
motherhood, sexual relationships, and abortion. In “Night,” the
mother-narrator admits, as she watches her child, that the “body /
that wills him to sleep” is “wrung-out lonely.” In the surreal
“Eating the Earth,” the poet says she will take her child with her
on a subterranean journey in which she consumes for posterity her
parent’s yard and house, and even her parents themselves (“There’s
room in my jacket I can button him in tight / I will feed him worms”).

In “Between Your Parents’ Sheets,” the poet does not look away
from her lover as he is transformed into his father, “and no one stops
[him].” She “mewls” on the occasion of her “undelivery” of
twins. The five-part poem (“The Shell Box”) that surrounds this
devastating event is both touching and merciless. Pearson rejects the
sentimental and embraces frank, if unpleasant, truths. Her sense of
humor and distinctive, taut phrasing will make Prime a welcome addition
to any library’s poetry collection.