One Girl Babylon

One Girl Babylon by Ruth Ellen Kocher New Issues Poetry & Prose, Western Michigan University, November 2003 $14.00, ISBN 1-930-97433-7

Kocher delivers concentrated doses of unadorned reality-not necessarily harsh and brutal but hardly always pretty, cither. Her poems play out in short bursts of writing that are intense, clean and sparing, creating an uneasy jazz. They hit notes that test readers, yet draw us in deeper. "Song of Evelyn, Upstairs" weaves two voices-a sassy subject and an introspective speaker: "Evelyn of voices/ of men/ I have plenty/ one with a big long car that's white/ and I look good in/ I will say that twice/ because I do look good/ in that car/.../ madonna …