Wild Flight

Soaring across extensive terrain, from the working world of Detroit to American suburbia and pop culture; from the European landscape of World War II to the current war in Iraq, Christine Rhein opens her personal world to the world at large. In poems that explore the historical, social, and scientific, as well as the poignant and humorous, Rhein relishes life s juxtapositions.

from Tuning

I try to tune out the boom boom boom

from the shooting range two miles from my house,

and think of the people who live next door

to the targets, or in the din of London and Berlin

where nightingales now sing fourteen decibels louder

to be heard by mates, quintupling the pressure

in their lungs . . . . . . Imagine

if we could hear bread rising, dew forming, the budding

of raspberries, the tear of a cocoon, a minnow s pulse,

our own cells growing, dying. When my husband

kisses my ear, I love the swoosh, the quiver, his breaths

and driven by wind, my whispered name."