Poetry. In this book, Kimiko Hahn manages to take the air of atrocity we breathe in daily and turn it into fierce political/ lyrical poetry, in the tradition of Shelley's The Masque of Anarchy. Current events ripped open and the entrails exposed in living color. She is one of our strongest poets-Harvey Shapiro. In VOLATILE, Hahn's lyrical voice maintains its course through narratives ranging from quiet recollections of childhood to the sometimes unbearable horrors of the modern world: She watched her child starve. Watched her neighbor get clubbed to death. Watched another disappear./ (how the mind acts to what the body perceives)/ Dissociation,' a state of altered consciousness. If I am on a freeway daydreaming and drive past the exit... (Blindsided: a zuihitsu). Kimiko Hahn is the author of AIR POCKET and EARSHOT (both from Hanging Loose Press) and THE UNBEARABLE HEART (Kaya), all of which are available from SPD.