Devil's Garden

Using musical allusion and metaphor, juxtaposing history and autobiography, Matejka navigates a triracial identity. In these poems, having too many heritages means having no heritage at all. As a result, cultural identifiersbe they afros, war paint, or William Shatnertake the place of identity. Vibrant narrative lyrics use image as riff, syllable as note, to improvise on a personal history severed from tradition.Betwixt and BetweenMiscegenation's capitolis the mule. Not quite horse,almost donkey. No usefulerection to speak of.In any unnatural concoction,somebody's got to takethe blame. Freud would saycredit the mother if propsare necessary.Mulattosare human muleshalfblack, most times morethan half whitemisogynouson a good day. All the while,impotent between tribes.Blame: gift of the exotic,like Hendrix openingfor the Monkees, or Othellokey holed by Iago. Blessedbe he with the hybrid vigorof melanin, arrested betweenthe sun and the sun.'Reading Adrian Matejka's amazing debut, I was left with the feeling that American Poetry was at last beginning to catch up with early twenty-first century American life. He has written the first serious songs from a world that's about to make itself felt and known.'Cornelius Eady