Reeman’s Invention of the Mouth picks at the knot of disturbing relations that exist between individuals and various “death-machines” of the state: the guillotine, the gun, the atom bomb, the family. Whether of J. Robert Oppenheimer or Reeman’s own grandparents, the creations of those who came before us, at some point, got away from them. Whether it’s the atom bomb or alcoholism, we are left to deal with the aftermath: what destroys us. But framed by the “mouth” of the guillotine – associated as it is with the French Revolution – these poems refuse fatalism & remind readers that sometimes destroying what destroys you involves “us” destroying “them.” – Wendy Trevino, author of Cruel Fiction (Commune Editions)
