not my daughter

not my daughter is a mesmerizing collection of 44 poems that are part confessional, part documentary, part analytical lyric exploration of the adoption system, part southern baptist parentage and queer identity narrative, part psychedelic sensual love story of the self and others, part meditation on grief within a complicated relationship, part, part, part. As you will find throughout, "this is my body, / broken for you," it contains multitudes.Jessie is a poetic auteur of technical brilliance, singular personality, and deep interior meaning who immerses the reader in a universe through the use of her textured world. When we read these luminous poems filled with beauty and grief and desire, we learn ways to examine ourselves, our relationships, and others through new perspectives. We are able to glean many truths, such as how "Death and life both crave / clarity, light" or how "We are always clamoring, aggregating, / attaching, hoping we aren't really alone / striving toward impossible