In his fifth collection of poetry the physician and awardwinning writerRafael Campo considers what it means to be the enemy in America today. Usingthe empatheti... » 

In his fifth collection of poetry the physician and awardwinning writerRafael Campo considers what it means to be the enemy in America today. Usingthe empathetic medium of a poetry grounded in the sentient physical body we allshare he writes of a country endlessly at warnot only against the presumedenemy abroad but also with its own troubled conscience. Yet whether he isaddressing the U.S. invasion of Iraq the battle against the AIDS pandemic orthe culture wars surrounding the issues of feminism and gay marriage Camposcompelling poems affirm the notion that hope arises from even the most bitterof conflicts. That hopemanifest here in the Cuban exiles dream of returningto his homeland in a dying IV drug users wish for humane medical treatmentin a downcast housewifes desire to express herself meaningfully through artis that somehow we can be better than ourselves. Through a kaleidoscopic lensof poetic forms Campo soulfully reveals this greatest of human aspirations asthe one sustaining us all. «