Imperial Liquor
Subtitle: Poems
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Published: Feb 25, 2020
Language: eng
Format: paperback
Number of pages: 70
ISBN-13: 9780822966067
Description: Imperial Liquor is a chronicle of melancholy, a reaction to the monotony of racism. These poems concern loneliness, fear, fatigue, rage, and love; they hold fatherhood held against the vulnerability of the black male body, aging, and urban decay. Part remembrance, part swan song for the Compton, California of the 1980s, Johnson examines the limitations of romance to heal broken relationships or rebuild a broken city. Slow Jams, red-lit rooms, cheap liquor, like seduction and betrayal--what's more American? This book tracks echoes, rides the residue of music "after the love is gone."
Notes: Source title: Imperial Liquor: Poems (Pitt Poetry Series)