Ashing a Spliff onto a Cop's Bald Head // Alina Pleskova's Toska (2023)

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"We let the strangeness / course through us, take the long way out."

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Alina Pleskova

provides us

with a banger

of a debut

poetry collection.

It's sharp

and nonchalant,

metropolitan

and punk rock,

empathetic while ashing

a spliff onto

a cop's bald head.

Kissing a beautiful

stranger while giving

the middle finger

to ICE. Created

within the depths

of a crumbling capitalist

society, this collection

is spiritual, curious, folkloric,

and forever exploratory,

floating between

gutter and traffic

jam and glam.

Toska via Deep Vellum