Cemetery Ink

In poems of compassion and social justice, Mihaela Moscaliuc probes borders and memory to work through, and further complicate, understandings of belonging—from places (including her native Romania) and histories, to ways of knowing, loving, and grieving. If the wounded populate these poems, so too do goats, black swans, centipedes, dismembered dolls, and wandering wombs. The ekphrastic sequence on Rousseau’s The Sleeping Gypsy honors stories of Roma people while addressing issues of (mis)representation and epistemic violence. As in previous collections, cemeteries become sites of power, holding the living accountable. The homeless women of IaşiSo many shouting at no one, disputing accusations, nodding maniacally, flogging trees with headscarves— their pantomimes re-populatesidewalks with ousted ghosts. They pose no threat but we detour cautiously, afraid their siren voices might awakenthe penal colony in our ribcage.