David C. Kopaska-Merkel is an exceptional poet who uses precise language and twisted speculation to forge a different, more nuanced world-view. In this book he takes those normal extremes of human imagery and... disassembles them, putting them back together in a Picasso-like state where some bits are offset, discolored, or too sharply in or out of focus. Perfect images in dark and light become speckled, tarnished, and imperfect. His works here, from poems about post-apocalyptic mutations to pieces dealing with shapeshifters and space travelers, are filled with creatures who are not so much extremes, or bigger than life, but are instead totally accessible because of the ordinariness of their cruelties, the normality of their mistakes and desires, and the pettiness of their wide-spread destruction. These are the small beings who do huge damage, the powerful divinities who act out of their small-mindedness, greed, and ignorance.