Bob Hicok's Red Rover Red Rover presents poems variously humorous and macabre, tender and morbid, as he explores the range of human emotion and experience. Environmental crisis is a recurring theme throughout, calling attention to the dire costs of modern conveniences and begging for our willingness to change. With nods to social concerns, such as feminism, violence against black people, and LGBT rights, Hicok indicates an acceptance and respect for those who look different from him. Whether crafting profundities about human origins or, one imagines, laughing at himself as he conjures images of goats at Home Depot and therapists' offices, no subject is too high or low for his wide-sweeping gaze. Any mundane behavior is fodder for his humor, and all of our best intentions feed into his overarching faith in America's capacity to transcend the disastrous present: heaven's everywhere / someone needs a place to rest // and someone else says, / Come in."" | Red Rover Red Rover by Bob Hicok, Paperback | Indigo Chapters