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January 8, 2024

The Cartoon & Poem Supplement

The Cartoon & Poem Supplement

"It's my second rodeo..."

Poems:

"Thought Experiment" by Katherine Barnett: Feels of a piece with Sabrina Imbler's brilliant writing on critters like these shrimp; both draw metaphors between the animal's experience and human life without directly anthropomorphizing. There's enough defamiliarization imbued in the simile for Barnett's more directly confessional moments to retain a subtle cast of strangeness. ("I rattle around again, mindlessly...") The ending feels pat, but everything else is strong.

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