Tapping out: poems - nandi comer

The relentless motions and blinding colors of lucha libre, the high-flying wrestling sport, are the arresting backdrop to Nandi Comers collection Tapping Out .

Mexican freestyle wrestling becomes the poets lyrical motif, uncovering what is behind the intricate masks we wear in society and our search for place within our personal histories.

Comers poetic narratives include explorations of violence, trauma, and identity.

The exquisite complications of the black experience in settled and unsettled spaces propel her linear explorations, which challenge the idea of metaphor and cadence.

The harsh realities of being migrant and immigrant, being birthright and oppressed, are as hard-pressed as the plancha move to the body.

Each poem in Tapping Out is a freestyle movement of language and complexity put on full display, under the bright lights and roars of survival.

Comers splendid and barbed, Detroit style of language melts the masks with searing words.