Black Bone

Alexa Marie Kelly's new book of poems puts to rest any delusions about race in America, especially with respect to the criminal justice system. She masters the difficult challenge of capturing imprisonment, including executions and suicides, from an exclusively free perspective. Few outsiders can understand a life in which the man or woman never feels safe anywhere, but Kelly eloquently describes it: "The caged heart has no mornings." Black Bone is disturbing but also necessary if this country is ever to move into a post-racial society and leave behind the perpetual long, dark night of a criminal justice system that values money and power over the individual. It is a tonic to the misinformation one hears during the unending election cycles and a volume that should be on any thinking person's reading list.