Raylene and Skip
Poems
by Kenneth Pobo
paperback, 54 pages
2025
Reviews
These poems build an affecting picture of working-class life in small-town America. Raylene and Skip live (and often feel stuck) in a town called Micah. Their lives have eroded over decades of marriage, but they have a bit of fight left in them. In poems that make clever use of direct and reported speech, we learn their secrets, flaws, and grudges. Pobo is a master of ironic twists and turns. In memorable metaphorical language, we get surprising glimpses into people’s souls. Fathers are “men like cordoned-off hallways.” After a violent argument over something trivial, “Skip becomes a saw / sawing the same wood block over and over,” and Raylene is “an ice cube / melting at the bottom of an iced-tea glass.” Frequently and with ease, Pobo sees into the depths of America’s scam culture. Characterizing Raylene’s knowledge of Skip’s extramarital affairs, Pobo writes, “The plumbing / needs fixing—no one’s trustworthy. / Someone will cheat you / the way you cheat others.” Robert Cooperman’s assessment of an earlier Pobo volume applies here as well: “This is a marvelous collection, one to savor with lines that are beautiful and true and just terrific poetry.”
About the Author
Kenneth Pobo (he/him) grew up in Illinois and now lives in Pennsylvania with his husband and cat. He began writing at the age of fifteen, inspired by songs like “Crystal Blue Persuasion” by Tommy James and the Shondells, and his Midwestern roots have continued to influence his writing. For 33 years he taught English and creative writing at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania. In 2020 he retired from teaching—but not from writing. He focuses mostly on poetry and flash fiction, with many of his poems being character studies and including garden-centered imagery. He also enjoys writing ekphrastic poems exploring connections with other forms of art, often painting or music. He is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and ten full-length collections. Recent books include At the Window, Silence (Fernwood Press). Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), Sore Points (Finishing Line Press). Lilac and Sawdust (Meadowlark Press), Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose (BrickHouse Books), and Gold Bracelet in a Cave: Aunt Stokesia (Ethel Press). His work has appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Amsterdam Review, Asheville Poetry Review, Nimrod, Indiana Review, Mudfish, Hawaii Review, Southern Indiana Review, and elsewhere.
