Notes of a Refugee

Notes is populated by many people -- the narrator of the title poem, a stranger to his life and language; a nameless divorcée, hiding her loneliness with small talk; a skiptracer, obsessed with tracking down debtors; an unknown messiah, whose text is the daily newspaper; an aging group of bachelors, making their weekly futile trip to a Saturday night dance; a little boy, living through a memorable summer afternoon. The poems reverberate with the Chicago neighborhoods which are their backdrop, and show a keen interest in psychology.