Acclaimed singer-songwriter Rodney DeCroo's second poetry collection, Next Door to the Butcher Shop, explores the permeability of memory and uncovers heart-wrenching beauty from shadowy grit. How quickly age / descends on us. Our memories are maps / to places that don't exist. I was an emperor / on a green lawn wearing a white sheet / and a paper crown. The birds sang my praises / from the hedges and the trees. DeCroo unsentimentally recounts moments suffused with grief, longing and loss, and offers a refreshingly unfiltered view of one's self. I'd stand for days along the edges of expressway / to sing off-key into the screams of semi-trailers and cars / until I stood within a cocoon of silence and flashing shadows. In a deft combination of lyrical and visceral imagery, Next Door to the Butcher Shop offers a rare, sharp, first-hand perspective of life around the edges, with dark comedy dispersed throughout

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