Station Zed

The AK wants to tell a different truth—
a truth ungarbled that is so obvious
no one could possibly mistake its meaning.

If you look down the cyclops-eye of the barrel
what you'll see is a boy with trousers
rolled above his ankles.

You'll see a mouth of bone moving in syllables
that have the rapid-fire clarity
of a weapon that can fire 600 rounds a minute.
—from "Oracle"

Station Zed is the terminal outpost beyond which is the unknown. It is also the poet Tom Sleigh's finest work. In this latest collection, Sleigh brings to these poems his experiences as a journalist on tours of Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, and Libya. But these are also dispatches from places of grief, history, and poetic traditions as varied as Scottish ballads and the journeys of Basho.