New American Best Friend [Paperback]

One of the most recognizable young poets in America, Olivia Gatwood dazzles with her tribute to contemporary American womanhood in her debut book, New American Best Friend. Gatwood's poems deftly deconstruct traditional stereotypes. The focus shifts from childhood to adulthood, gender to sexuality, violence to joy. And always and inexorably, the book moves toward celebration, culminating in a series of odes: odes to the body, to tough women, to embracing your own journey in all its failures and triumphs.the boys and i are playing quarters with double shots of vodka and i am winning. by winning imean i am not one of the boys but i am the next best thing. by the next best thing i mean i am agirl and i am drunk. every time i miss a shot, johnny gets to flick a quarter against my knucklesand now my knuckles are bleeding onto my thighs but every time i make a shot i get to knockback a throat full of liquor. i slam down the glass until it cracks up the side and now the game isabout who will still drink from it, who will risk shards in the belly, who will cut up their insidesfor a pack of newports and it's not that i even want the cigarettes, it's just that i am not afraid ofblood which is also part of being a girl. but being the only girl means making yourself lose whenyou've won too much so i bounce the coin off the rim of the shot glass and let johnny slice meopen. in thirty minutes, johnny is dragging me out of the bathroom by my wrists and i can hearhim saying something about blood on the carpet, about a drunk girl in the house who is stainingeverything and i think that means i must be the champion of quarters. johnny is the kind of guywho sleeps with a gun, not women. but johnny is always the one inviting me over for a game ofquarters and sometimes i wonder if this is how johnny fucks. like maybe he is the kind of manwho only screams when he is underwater or lets me feel how strong his fingers are without actuallytouching me. maybe that's why we're all here, even thelN