Scorpion's Question Mark

The Scorpions Question Mark,a formally inventive debut collection of poetry driven by narrative and character,was the winner of the 2022 Donald Justice Poetry Prize.In this stunning debut, JD Debris writes about characters who live on societys outskirts and demand greater visibility in the face of marginalization. At the books heart are extended narrative elegies for two musicians. First, the poet follows Mexican singer and songwriter Chalino Snchez as he avenges his sisters sexual assault, and then he turns to Gato Barbieri, an influential Argentine tenor saxophonist who is haunted by a shadowy man in dusk-colored glasses. As these musicians question their purpose, we as readers are invited to reflect on our lives, our legacies, and ourselves.The Scorpions Question Mark is personal and mythological, representational and abstract. These formally inventive and metrically attuned poems compose a range of contrastsboxers Manny Pacquiao and Marvelous Marvin Hagler appear alongside Tupac and Herman Melville, and apparitions of the Virgin Mary manifest in both human and mirage-like forms on public beachfronts. Looking to the scorpions tail that forms the shape of a question mark, Debris seeks to occupy uncertain space within the poems, bending forms to find both expansiveness and tension.