The Odicy

Insightful, biting, and masterfully crafted, this collection of poems seeks to assess the pressing ecological, spiritual, and political crises of the modern era. Tracking the mysterious central and repeating character named Tony, elegant verse combines with the end-time rhetoric of contemporary fundamentalism. In a canonical meter, meditations are offered on the rise of fountain drinks and the use of artificial color as a means to investigate humanity’s social fabric. Richly blending cutting social criticism with poetic lyricism, Cyrus Console comes to terms with the social continua on which sugar substitutes are manufactured by pharmaceutical giants and weaponized defoliants evolve into bestselling agrichemicals—all while breaking new ground on the role of poetry in an industrialized society.