Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit

Oneiric, fabulist, hilarious, surreal. No single term seems to efficiently contain Mikko Harvey’s delightful, cheeky, absurdist, inimitable debut collection. A bomb and a raindrop make small talk as they fall through the air; a visit to the phlebotomist evolves into a nightmarish party; a boy notices himself turning into a piano key. Reading Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit is like spending the day at a strange amusement park. At first the rides appear familiar—then you realize they possess the power to not only thrill and terrify, but destabilize your very notion of amusement. These poems veer sharply away from what’s normally expected of poetry, instead bringing readers to that darkened, awkward, interior space where we are free to be most ourselves.