Mouthfuls of Space

The poems in Mouthfuls of Space offer a dissociative journey through the life of a once homeless recovering drug addict and victim of childhood sexual, emotional, and physical abuse. Tom Prime's debut solo collection was written under the haze of antipsychotics later discovered to have caused many of his symptoms. His hypnotic, surreal voice reveals his transition from the street into the low-paying menial labour of factory work. There is beauty here too, and deeply dark comedy: a sprite-like being imagines his hallucinations as a deeper reality, where indescribable creatures coexist with "hyenas dressed as real estate agents" and those who march in "the skeleton parade." Mouthfuls of Space explores trauma and the dehumanizing enterprise of factory work with sensitivity but also desperation. The voice in these poems struggles to breathe but finds a certain comfort in "the mother-shadow of trees, the old light of vibrating stars."