Broadstone Books
70 pages
September 1, 2025
Michele Wolf’s poetry collection Peacocks on the Streets possesses immediate mystique and grit. Life is strange, the poet alerts her reader, strange things happen. Embrace the strangeness, Wolf suggests, for “Living with wildlife is a part of life—/What we fear, what we prize.” Wolf draws a clear parallel between humans and animals; our worlds and our habitats constantly come into contact, even blur. In “Manatee Viewing Room,” the poet thinks, “Next they’ll receive Publix/Gift cards wrapped in BOGO circulars.” While the sentiment concerning these manatees is light-hearted, the inevitability of destruction due to carelessness and a sense of false-ownership is clear, and it extends human-to-human. Wolf asks, “Who is it who owns the recounting of history?/Who is it who owns a Black man’s life?” Peacocks on the Streets presents what at first feels absurd, and then through quick twists of imagery, absurdity becomes normalcy. This is our reality. In “Postcards at the Museum,” Wolf candidly describes, “The murderers had no fear of identification. Sometimes/The murderers were police. Vendors sold pop and sandwiches.” We are all spectacle, Wolf seems to say. Make the choice, come watch us.