Spinning Side Kick

A hard-knuckled look at the other half, this collection of lively poems mix a girl-about-town cockiness with an all-too-rare emotional honesty about men, love, and relationships. Whether the subject is a one-man chimney demolition, the lifelong fidelity of seahorses, a lover at war in Afghanistan, or a kickboxing match, Lahey confronts the enduring disconnect between the sexes in a language that is slangy and quick, punctuated with jabs. She eyes those moments—in a day, in a life—when the normal clues we rely on disappear, shifting the line between domesticity and danger.