In the dark poetry of her newest collection, Sue Owen imagines the devil's brooding, the last nail in a coffin, and the musings of shooting stars. Owen turns proverbial sayings (in "Getting to the Point," "Until Hell Freezes Over," or "If the Other Shoe Drops") into fully developed parables that examine and elaborate upon the assumptions we all make. This is a cookbook with recipes that instruct, where hell becomes a kitchen of wisdom and insight. The heat in these poems reminds us of the evil in our contemporary lives and challenges us to look straight at it, without fear

In the dark pit of hell,
I imagine that the pitchfork
comes in pretty handy
to hurl the evil ones

into their pitch-black places,
hurls, flings, and tosses
them down as a part of
their permanent torment there.

And as I imagine how those
sharp prongs of the pitchfork
sort and pierce, I can
almost hear the agony

of the bodies in pain, their
tongues uncurling in those
sounds of grief that rise
up to my ears like flames.

“The Philosophy of Pitchforks” published in The Devil's Cookbook by Sue Owen.
Copyright © 2007 by Sue Owen. All rights reserved.