Acting as social commentator and oracle, Thao Worra’s language transports us to the exotic market of Luang Prabang, or the urban flow of the Mississippi river in Minnesota. Powerful images of pain suffered in war sear the pages, leaving a thread of emptiness in their wake. Thao Worra’s words also give readers an intergalactic mix of aliens, war and mythological beings.
The humor of being a foreigner in a new land is seen in the poem “Poultry”, where chickens are compared to their ancestors the dinosaurs.
Your legs stiffen without eulogies,
And your wings can’t pray their petitions
To the god of the Archaeopteryx for delivery.
Arriving in St. Paul, immigration asks me
If I’ve been in contact with livestock.
I want to say: “Are you kidding?
Have you ever been to my homeland?”
Looking out to the rising sun my breakfast
Will never see again.
Questions like these make us more aware of how differently everyone experiences American life.
Readers will enjoy the historical and literary references in the poems also. At the back of the book there are notes to help guide readers on the references; I found myself checking the back many times. In On the Other Side of the Eye, new myths and discoveries are waiting to be explored, challenging readers to view the world from the outside in.
- Rhonda Niola