Cult poet and musician Mike Doughty makes his print debut withSlanky, a black-comic stroll through the demimonde of pop culture and modern urban life. Doughty's poems are at once absurdest and matter-of-fact; the images he conjures are thrown into high relief through cutting wordplay. In a series of prose poems about showbiz, he re imagines Cookie Monster as a burned-out suicide, and cheesy talk-show host Joe Franklin as a cross-dressing witness to the apocalypse. And in 'For Charlotte, Unlisted,' he wrenchingly tracks the elusive memory of a faded romance. | Slanky by Mike Doughty, Paperback | Indigo Chapters