Every now and again a poet comes along to both ground us in the flesh, and fracture any conceptual framework we’ve brought to the party. In his new collection, Andy Kerstetter’s poetic lens won’t let us off the hook, or let us down easy.

Search teams are combing through
the ashes in your mouth
trying to find bathtubs or beds
where people might have taken
the tongue, also a fire, which left 
no way to escape a world 
of evil among the parts 
of the body. 

- excerpt from "The Inferno Lessons"