Nathalie Handal's ninth collection, Roma Roam, chronicles an unraveling after the discovery of a lover's betrayals. These bold poems explore power, freedom, water, memory, and "how / we hold history in our splitting bodies." The speaker opens herself to the opacity of human connections where "passion can be a seafarer, / a daily resurrection" and "faithfulness / a long hesitation." Who--or what--do we betray when we roam other bodies? What roles do history, religion, art, and culture play in our infidelities? Rome stands as a crossroads of Mediterranean migration and diaspora--a symbolic center where cultures and civilizations interact and transform one another. What happens when the past and present, the city and the lover, truth and falsehood collide? Roma Roam offers a startling way of fathoming the enigmatic world--and our tenuous belonging within it. Wild, sexy, visionary, and unpredictable, the collection insists on desire as both rupture and revelation.
