In Thorn Grass, Luis H. Francia displays his trademark wordplay and lyrical sensibility. Whether encountering rush-hour crowds in the New York subway system, contemplating Godot’s bewilderment at being stood up, or the fecund promise beneath bleak winter earth, he keeps an unwavering eye, often ironic and humorous, on the human condition, real and imagined.
The last part of this collection, “Citizen Acts,” pulls no punches in laying out the paradox of the Philippine state whose duty it is to respect and protect its citizens, but instead subjects them too often to decidedly inhumane treatment. Under a murderous ruler, the state becomes a black hole, from which no light escapes. The poems in Thorn Grass, at once mournful and celebratory, elegiac and lighthearted, are bright lights emanating from a constellation deeply mysterious and universal.
Author: Luis H. Francia
ISBN/ISSN: 978971542966-5
Category: Literary; Poetry
Copyright: 2021
Pages: 120
Size: 6x9
Type: PB/SP