REVIEW OF 29 CHEESEBURGERS BY JACK KIMBALL AT PANTALOONS

"At a point when a good number of other poets are re-evaluating the languagescape for rudimentary alternatives to political process and cultural narrative, Lamoureux criss-crosses narration and the politics of self, of family matters and of travelogue via recollections of consuming cheeseburgers from over a decade ago (high school, college) up to nearly contemporaneous reminiscences of eating in dives in New York and New England. At times the culinary memos are foodie anomie, as in #15: "Here I strategize the second drink / try & remember where I've put / my hands..." Later pieces trace Lamoureux's Fung Wah-enabled relations with NYC-Boston poets. Familiar but strong observance of the romance in self-observing: "I'm blasted infantlike: / from the envelope of sense"; "I'm young & strong in this light, / folding rays into origami animals, / a skinny runner in an open space..."; "the plate's lozenge reflects my true face: / elongate, cavernmouthed & / prodigal / hungry ghost."

--Jack Kimball, from Pantaloons