1. All the Wrong Men by Aviya Kushner is an inventive chapbook. To call this chap an exploration of gender relations would not be quite right. To call it an investigation into the biblical story of Adam and Eve would be to sell it short. To say that it encompasses a great deal of the authors personal experiences as a woman would be accurate but not the whole story. To say it is all of these things would be on the money.
2. These poems are less infused by Eve as guided by her. We take her hand we follow in her lithe steps.
3. from Honey from the wrong man

 

Honey, he says, and I melt,

even though I heard that easy endearment

from every driver at every motel

as I drove through half the country:

This country I was born in

but never totally understand,

which is why I drive through it

every few years, to take another look.

4. But this path is at times a frank and harrowing one and not stuck in a biblical past. Ms. Kushner does an admirable job of running the gamut of contemporary experiences. She doesn’t shy away from a darker exploration of life.
5. from Evenings in my part of Chicago

 

In the night now

I pass the winos

and the toothless hooker—

even her wails

are wordless,

and yet,

men come to her,

how they come to her,

it all hours—

 

And I pass that woman

who I sometimes

imagine

earns a fortune

at the mouth

of the train station

toothless and wordless

as she is—

 

Then I go to the stones

at the edge of the lake

 

And I do not think

about God at all,

not anymore,

I think only of nights

and what

happens

in them.

6. Ms. Kushner knows what she is taking about.
7. Buy