Dumpster fires outside discount stores and rotting whale carcasses; optical illusions and memento mori-all coming to you direct, / by way of this Rube Goldberg machine.' Failure to Thrive zigzags through excess, taking in the big picture through the lens of a pinhole camera. These poems ask us to lean into our senses, to 'spend time loitering, slipping coins into attention's slots, / anticipating the next big pay-off.' Suzannah Showler's debut shows us how a failing world can be the site of aesthetic renewal rather than decline.'
