Review: Fragile Poetry
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 19, 2014
This novella is a sonnet.  A love song. A tribute and cautionary tale wrapped into one for all lovers who knew their love could break and bind them all at once, who choose to walk the tight rope between insanity and absolution.What happens after breakfast? Three years after her abduction, what happens when Cataline comes face to face with Calvin Parrish again? It’s a giant relief and a delicate dance to determine the future.“’(N)ow I can see you better.’‘I’m not sure that’s a good thing.’I smiled and put my palm to his cheek. ‘It is. You’re good Calvin. I’ve seen the worst of you, and now I get to know the best.’‘I think you might be the best of me.’”Calvin knows he’s no good for Cataline, but I think he also knows that he could be her savior, has always been her savior in more ways than one. He will always walk that line between good and evil; he will always be in a battle for his soul. What will save him though, is that he is rooted, utterly and completely in Cataline. She is Calvin’s divining rod, guiding him from God to mortal, from impermeable to porous.Cataline gives herself entirely to Calvin while at the same time using her submission to fuel her strength. Because she is able to see Calvin in his entirety she is able to convert his inherent dissonance into raw power and then channel that power into herself, into her own journey towards wholeness.There is still an edge of brutality between Calvin and Cataline that expresses itself most loudly when they come together physically. Their union is barely constrained violence tempered by trust that unravels them both.This is love story that goes above and beyond any currently understood notions of fairy tales or romance. This is a battle for souls; this is passion given wings and semi-automatic weapons.Leighton Del Mia has carried on Calvin and Cataline’s story in a gorgeous tale of making it up as they go along. It reached right into me, grabbed hold of my heart and nervous system and is holding them hostage still. And I have no intention of paying the ransom. They are willingly given.My personal plea to the author?  Please keep writing. I cannot wait to read what you give next.