Written during the George W. Bush era, the poems in Brother No One take their bearings from our surveillance society, where no action or transaction goes unnoticed. Everything, from vacation spots to email messages to food choice, becomes part of the surveilled tableau, and the lines between victim, bystander, and perpetrator become blurred. The CIA regulates the sun's rising and setting, cameras lurk behind mirrors, and every human interaction becomes fodder for film. Brian Henry takes on these issues with dizzying energy, examining their effects on language, the body, perception, and the possibility of human love. Brother No One is searingly political, deeply personal, and wholly idiosyncratic.
Asleep, the Structure Unmoving, We Remain, Unmoved Something Dark Indeed Water & Weather, the Sun Disguise Teeth-Tiered Lipica Audition 97% of the Population Live Within Five Miles of the Coast Interior: Airport Bar Rolling Meth Lab Orchestrating Flight Baited Sonnet Irritable Bowel Sonnet Us Two Arkitekt [Through a Glass Darkly] Powerwalker Sonnet Cruelty Free Sonnet Divine Residue Arms & Weather, the Stars Submarine Actually Sounding, or Bad-Ass Cassowary Particle & Parcel Big Big CIA Sunrise Festive Occasion Awkward Acquaintance in Autumn Histrionic Tendencies Ghouls Tink Devil's Snare One for the Man Boyish Figure Sidewalk Cachet Brother Witch Foundation Beaten to the Punch The Migraine Sonnets Gray Easel Brother No One