The Disappearing Cowboy Trick

Poetry. "Heavenly and dangerous at the speculative edge of the West, 'up to and including the time of the fire,' between carnival and fairy tale, diorama and shoot-out, these deep matter tableaus tell us a thousand things about ourselves we haven't usually time or heart to examine. What origami spirit animal did I fold in my head? Did I hear my fate coming like the hero who 'heard the sound of his own boots on the boards moments before he fell like a beef?' And there's no end to the territory in which heroes, wolves, and Little Red take a risk. Abraham leads us out of the forest onto the high plains. She charts pain and wonder, which are sometimes indistinguishable one from the other, from us, 'two cahoots, caught in a swivet."—Danielle Pafunda