Joan spends a good deal of time taking apart this poem:

"Is an axle's excavation
an axiom's inversion
that muzzles
the ventriloquist breath

of a nipple. The revolving door
of its throat."

* by Christina Mengert, Slope, Issue 17

I hope Christina (whoever she is) won't mind me reposting it here and saying that I don't think this poem is deserving of such harsh treatment. Whether or not it is a great poem, it does matter whether the words in it are replaced with others! I'd like to be able to defend every poem in Fence and Skanky Possum. Unfortunately, I can't. A lot of the work is simply not that compelling, from where I sit. I am not arrogant enough to think I am the one to make that determination, though.