The Man-Child Chronicles: Selected Poems

My parents take long walks together in the evenings, and it is clear that theirs is a good and full life. I’m riding an empty subway car to an engagement with fresh strangers and pray tonight won’t be like the night before and the one before and the one before and the one before. My mother power-shops at the supermarket daily. My father can spend three days with the Sunday paper. I envy their satisfaction. I stand in awe of their capacity for pleasure. They’ve found all they needed in modern living. I ride a bullet and pray.

— “The Blue Line”

Poem by poem, The Man-Child Chronicles captures this small awakening and all the other tiny revelations that lead from youth to maturity. Family, friendships, sex, and individuality take on new dimensions. Careers, ethics, and character stop being abstract and become real issues of contention. Meanwhile, there is an ongoing struggle to be simultaneously cool, true, and responsible.

The Man-Child Chronicles illustrates that even today, growing up is never easy — and never impossible.