A gorgeous second book by Valencia Robin, author ofRidiculous Light.

Brimming with music, bursting with flora, the poems in Valencia Robins second collectionare both a walking tour of local neighborhoods and a journey into space and across timeways of looking and listening to the past in order to find our best way forward. Engaging with an array of artistic heroesJames Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Eavan Boland, Gwendolyn Brooks, Etheridge Knight, Audre Lorde, Nina Simone, Pablo Neruda, and Stevie Wonder among themRobin looks for guidance, grounding, and even hope in spite of the traumas she witnesses and experiences daily. In one striking masterpiece, she gives voice to a prescient childhood icon, Lieutenant Uhura ofStar Trek, who brings the show’s unfulfilled vision of interstellar racial harmony to bear on the killing of black and brown bodies in contemporary America. Whether set in space or down the block in Charlottesville or Milwaukee, the poems inLost Citiesoffer ushope amid the heartbreak of a fractured world.