Oyster Knife, by Jean Ox

Poetry, chapbook, 44 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Oyster Knife is a collection of poems about longing and loneliness, suffering and salvation. It recounts the illnesses which come and cannot be cured, the friends we find only to lose, and the love that remains as a residue in the heart. These poems reach backwards in memory to grasp at an obscure moment and try to untangle its meaning: what it was for; what it meant then and means now; and if it might hold the key to our future.

This is the first chapbook by Jean Ox. It was written over the course of a few years, in sublet rooms and bus terminals across the Midwest. And so this work is imprinted by those places and holds a trace of their scent. Oyster Knife is for those who have had loved ones vanish, and for the ones who are now vanishing. Hold these poems for a little while before you go.

Jean Ox is a poet from eastern Kansas. Her poems have appeared most recently in Sobotka. She lives in Chicago and works with computers. You can find her on Twitter at @mjeanox or on the open web at punx.us.