Small, imperfect paradise

the long version

In Small, Imperfect Paradise, Dallas Crow unflinchingly explores themes of love, sex, growing up, and growing older. The spine of the narrative is the speaker's progression through a relationship, from the early possibility and romance, through marriage and parenthood, and on to the painful dissolution. The titular poem identifies a moment of stillness in this progression, where two realities exist, one aching, and one idyllic: that of the husband and wife, whose relationship is over, and that of the sleeping children, who do not yet know. The small, imperfect paradise that Crow writes toward is shattered in Separation: Like a home movie played backwards, Crow intones, the gifts / are rewrapped and taken away, the guests / sidle awkwardly out, and then your children leave, / smiling and waving. In this collection, Crow creates a Mobius loop that mirrors the human experience; the poems wind through startling pain and realization and then loop back to hope and love again and again, each experience simultaneously fractured and precious.