The subtitle to this zine sums it all up: “Uniquely painful poems and desperate accounts.” Although Mackenize MacBride calls this poetry, it reads more like pages of her diary. Consistently it is about lost love and the desperation, depression, and obsession that ensue. But before we get into the nitty gritty, MacBride at least gets credit for putting so much of herself out there, and admitting to things like having days when she could barely make it into work over all of this love business. To turn the energy from a bad situation into something productive is always a good thing. But she would have been better to actually turn this into a personal zine. There is nothing poetic in lines like “your voice nor your words are clearly audible thanks to the crappy audio set up–” And although the subject has inspired artists for centuries, 65 pages of “I love yous” can get a little tedious, especially when wading through over-used exclamation marks, made up words like “gone-ness,” and the overuse of “cuz” instead of “because.” But there is at least one gem in here, and that’s “My Allotment of You,” which churns out some interesting lines. If MacBride scribbles more of that out with a little spit and polish next time around, she could be on to something. (Liz Worth)
Mackenzie MacBride, poetry zine, 65 pages, [email protected]