OH, YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS A DATE?!

TITLE -  OH, YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS A DATE?! 

WRITTEN BY - C. RUSSELL PRICE

PUBLISHED BY - NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY PRESS 

PUBLICATION DATE - 15TH JUNE 2022

Apocalypse poetry is “in”, and C. Russell Price’s “Oh, You Thought This Was A Date?!”, a hardcore yet quietly excellent collection of self-styled “Apocalypse Poems”, joins a growing End Times library. These verses are most definitely not for the fainthearted with themes of child abuse, suicide, self-harm, rape amongst more progressive ideas of gender and identity, from a gay voice that refuses to be silenced. 

Each section has a title, such as “Pretend A Pandemic” and “The Devil Has Been Busy Today”. The apocalypse, real and metaphorical, stalks and occasionally attacks these poems, each one complete with its own soundtrack to listen to whilst reading and a “Ritual” for daily activities, including “get drunk in front of your cat”. 

Shoving the reader into a world of sex in vacant parking lots and weed-smoking millennials discussing their favourite doomsday scenarios, this is pretty grim reading from the outset. A nihilistic threads runs throughout the poems, which is visualised perfectly in “Armageddon Origin Story” where molestation in a lake house is juxtaposed with a man mowing his lawn; if you’re not convinced, try “On Reading a Copy of Pushkin I Stole from My Childhood Rapist: A Cento”, a title which, on reading the poem, turns out not to be metaphorical as the poet depicts their abuser in something approaching awe. In a later poem, Price telephones his “molester” and can’t help seeing him in all men with the same name. 

There are touches of Beat poetry in many poems, indeed the whole collection evokes it, especially in “Someone Is Missing for You and the Whole World Feels Empty” which begins - 

“We’re on LSD going eighty in a downpour”. 

Another highlight is the opening verse of “How to Die on a Farm” - 

“The vegetarians have slipped/and cannibalism is on its way.”

The rest of the poem is a rhythmic, punchy treat, displaying the usual pitch-dark sexual negativity. Elsewhere, the Apocalypse is renamed Carl, and we get a list of all of Carl’s foibles which are all too recognisable to our 2022 eyes, e.g. 

“Carl and cancel culture are in heat”

Overall, this is a modern, powerful  collection with many effective moments - and it ends strongly - a kind of “hate-letter” to modern America. There are some poems where the titles are possibly the best thing about them, but they all have a pleasing kinetic rhythm and vivid, often brutal imagery. This isn’t a book to be read in one sitting as the negative imagery can become very overwhelming, but an occasional sampling can offer a jolt of angry, modern darkness that is so very now. I loved it!