Shut Up Shut Down

Wisconsin Bookwatch, Jan, 2005

Shut Up Shut Down

Mark Nowak

Coffee House Press

27 N. Fourth St., Minneapolis, MN 55401

www.coffeehousepress.org

1566891639 $15.00 1-800-283-3572

Mark Nowak is a member of College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota, and active in the American labor movement. Mark Nowak is also a master of the narrative poem as documented in Shut Up Shut Down, an impressive and strongly recommended collection of poetic plays and photo-documentary poems exposing the human cost of globalization and deindustrialization. I dislike having people about me. I find myself crossing the street to avoid meeting people I know. Whenever possible, I avoid being in a crowd. I avoid people when it is possible. I prefer to be alone most of the time. * her Black breasts/his Testosterone his//internal combustion/engine anomie//"We went to see/a baseball game.//But when people saw/Chinese sitting there//They kicked us/and cursed at us.//I never went back."/He never came home//Louisville slugger/"Little mother fuckers"//Bear hug/year of the Dog