American Inmate is serenade and prayer book, confession and caution. These types of speech acts presume—and require—a listener to operate. Justin Rovillos Monson’s gift is to write poems angled both to his intimate listener and his unknown reader. He writes, “LANGUAGE CANNOT ANSWER what we ask of ourselves when we are alone. I’ve damaged people. I’ve done things that have hurt people I played basketball with, rode the bus with, walked to school with.”

“You Must Learn to Climb” begins:

Since I have fallen in love again, I have sprouted
new limbs which I allow to sway

from the windows of my cell & a molt
of a tongue that gets down & pearls

each blessed word I wrap in skin

Many poems, including this one, are “after” contemporary poets, while some “featur[e]” musicians like Jay-Z and Method Man. Lyrics can feel inert on the page, but Monson carries the music in his words. In an energized, kinetic language, he splices registers, by turns contemplative and raw, mythic and humanly proportioned.

The titular poem features an Everyperson experiencing the mundane panoply of human life:

Inmate still working in
construction. Inmate with son. Inmate with gun.
Inmate on vacation. Inmate on run. Inmate
drowning in student loans. Inmate needs second
mortgage on home. Inmate so tired of being alone.
Inmate sits down to pen a poem. Inmate in house.
Inmate in cell. Inmate has cancer. Inmate gets well.
Inmate fights. Inmate writes. Inmate daydreams
late at night. Inmate kisses. Inmate fucks. Inmate
seems to have bad luck. Inmate doesn’t say it
much, but Inmate thinks, I’ve had enough...

The carceral experience is not limited to a penitentiary. Through juxtapositions like vacation and run, house and cell, Monson raises the question: what does freedom mean? His bio states that he “is currently serving a sentence in the Michigan Department of Corrections from which he hopes to be released in 2027.” This collection, by no means a memoir, is rich in mysteries, fed by a plurality of viewpoints: “Almost every man I know talks too goddamn much. All my favorite poets are women & gods.”