If you're in the mood for some wackier fare, Red Mother by poet Laurel Radzieski depicts an all-consuming love affair -- between a parasite and its host. Told from the parasite's perspective, Radzieski's quirky yet sinister poems take the reader through the organism's life cycle, teetering between science and imagination. Red Mother is a dark tale of longing, achieving the perfect balance of horror and romance.

For a metaphor to work it needs to be real and Laurel Radzieski, in Red Mother, gives voice to an all too real parasite. A cross between Kafka and a horror film, these concise, concrete poems slowly burn until they overtake us through profound recognition. Dare we call her parasite love?"

Halfway through Laurel Radzieski's Red Mother she writes, "There are so many ways to tell this story, / all sickening. / So much of who we are / requires purging." With that idea in mind, there are many ways to read this inventive and complex collection of short poems that take on the life cycle of a parasite. The poems are at once scientific and fantastical but can easily be a metaphor for our own dependent relationships. Radzieski's sparse style brings a sharp cleanness to a rather messy topic.