My Perfect Cognate / Natalie Scenters-Zapico / 2025
Natalie remains one of my favorite poets for the way she spits her grief with grit. Here, we get a slough of poems processing post-partem depression and the pain of a miscarriage braided into the language by exploring the intimacy and distance between false and true cognates in Spanish and English. Each poem gets mirrored, however, slanted in its translation. It makes for intellectually stimulating poems in English and Spanish where the subtleties of meanings get spun through cognates. This is an innovative form I’ve seen nowhere before, and I tip my hat to Natalie for once again finding new formal ground and most of all for having the nerve to GO THERE in terms of content. 4.5/5