Selected by Marie Howe for the 2011 Kathryn A. Morton Prize, Easy Math is anxious and exuberant both. Lauren Shapiro's poems are Aesop stood on end, wry fables that defy our instinct to find a moral to the story. Instead, she offers us a gimlet eye to the disappointments of the world, tall tale-telling by turns rickety, defiant, and brave. There are an infinite number of ways to torture the soul with hopefulness" Shapiro says, so we settle for ways to survive--crooked grins, twisted logic, and equations of jello shots, amusement parks, and post-it notes that never add up. "Everyone has something to say / about love and impermanence and waste." She says it better than most.
