"The lines in these wise, funny, often startlingly sad poems nudge and jostle each other coltishly, and no wonder: they are the foals of Head and Heart, two mighty steeds to draw the reader's chariot out of the well-trodden way and straight to poetry's palace of gold, its realm of the blessd."-David Kirby

Tension between the alluring promise of contemporary American suburbia and the high anxiety of a born second-guesser characterize this funny, self-deprecating, and frank portrayal of fatherhood, marriage, and personal transformation, as the speaker's definition of happiness evolves.

"The Afterlife"

It was after my 31 year-old body fell from the ledge

of the skateboard ramp and lay on its back clutching

its knee then its wrist that I convinced the white sheet

of high thin clouds I was all right.

It was after I watched one chickenhawk follow

another into a wall of pine trees that I decided

if I can't be young in the afterlife, I don't want to go.

It was after this, the black spot of sweat

on the asphalt in the shape of a torso disappeared.

Frank Giampietro earned his MFA from Vermont College and is currently in the PhD program in creative writing at Florida State University. His poems have appeared in Columbia Poetry Review, CutBank, 32 Poems, Exquisite Corpse, and Poetry International. He lives in Tallahassee with his wife and two children.

Frank Giampietro earned his MFA from Vermont College and is currently in the PhD program in Creative Writing at Florida State University. He is the founding editor of lafovea.org, and his poems have appeared in Columbia Poetry Review, CutBank, 32 Poems, Exquisite Corpse, and Poetry International. He lives in Tallahassee with his wife and two children.