Inspired by characters and events in the Book of Esther in the bible, Tyranmató n reveals Queen Vashti's fate in excile, including her witnessing of the incomprehensible massacre of her people by themselves, as carried out by Tyranmató n's soldiers. Thematically Tyranmató n is about tyranny, beauty, love, the power to tame white tigers, justice, and related small matters all considered within a larger concern for pathological vertical-mindedness and its long history of perversion of character, misogony, and sectarian slaughter.

These are love songs in the broadest sense, some dealing with inept love and the ironies and moral hypocrisies of sex and gender; but many more - in energetic, contentious, often twinkle-in-the-eye poems - dealing with moral dilemmas ranging from abortion to vertical-mindedness. The poems are "accessible" and rich in imagery, story, characters, and passion. And many are presented in voices as varied as those of Hildegard von Bingen and Gita Smith, Bag Lady, as Oedipus and a deadbeat dad; as Death Mother and a Chinese student at Tiananmen Square.

The five Bronzes of Grand Junction are ordinary people instantly bronzed, like baby shoes, right in front of reliable witnesses, cause unknown. Could be the work of God, aliens, an artist, a magician. The bronzes cause quite a stir in town. And tourists arrive by the busload to see and talk about them. The result is an extended colloquy that is much more about us- America and Americans - than about the "bestatued" ones.