The Wrong Cat

Like the people and animals in her new collection, Lorna Crozier “defies / the anecdotal, / goes for the lyric, / music made from / bone and muscle and the grace notes” of life. The poems in The Wrong Cat are vintage Crozier: sly, sexy, irreverent, and sad, and populated by fully realized characters whose stories take place in a small lyrical space. We learn about a mother’s last breath, the first dog in heaven, a man’s fear that his wife no longer loves him, and the ways in which animals size up the humans around them and find them wanting. With Crozier’s celebrated mix of vibrant imagery, piercing observations, and deeply felt human emotions, these poems provide an affirmation in the midst of the fluid, often challenging nature of experience.