Glory ran away from home when she was 17,

he was supposed to be the man of her dreams:

he had a smile like a jewel in a sewer,

knuckles like an open tool box,

eyes like Kahlúa —

he made her feel like he was the only one who ever knew her

and when he told a lie nothing ever seemed truer.

An epic poem, meant to be read aloud — a story about two half-brothers who grow up in London, an illustrator and a criminal. Read it to yourself — or to a group of people — and you’ll start to feel the feels around page 40. This is the first long, narrative poem I’ve read since I was forced to read The Fairie Queene in high school or whatever, and the words just pile on each other until there’s that spoken word momentum that’s so rare and so right. There are so many tiny moments, elevated by rhyme and line breaks, that remind you why poetry is such a great storytelling medium. The characters are vivid, the plot is cinematic. You’ll want to memorize a few stanzas for the next time you’re uninspired.

2. Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones