Hummock in the Malookas

the long version

Welcome to the singular landscape of Matthew Rohrer's first book of poems, a winner in the 1994 National Poetry Series. In the Malookas, just beyond the world we recognize, everything - from weather to food to household appliances - experiences its own reality. A violin in a pawnshop swears it will never laugh if a gun tells a joke; a broken telephone is relieved not to have to transmit its owners' mundanities; and at precisely the wrong moment for two lovers in their car, a bridge crawls into town to get a drink. Surrealistic and quirky, these poems entertain and delicately point to truth. Rohrer illuminates a land of skewed realities where the impossible seems familiar, the sacher torte is afraid to be eaten, and it's always dusk in the forest.