A review by moh
Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones

5.0

This is shattering, beautiful poetry about being queer and black in the U.S., violence, power, sex, and desire. I went through these poems slowly, partially to savor them and partially because reading them hurt. (Around the halfway point, I started seeing images of scorched earth whenever I closed my eyes.) I keep fussing with what to say about this collection, and I'm nowhere near doing it justice, so here's a link to a piece by Saeed Jones about why he writes and how he got there. I cannot begin to recommend Prelude to Bruise strongly enough.