Wholesale Self-Vending, by Ethan Palmer

Poetry, chapbook, 44 pages, from Bottlecap Features. In Self-Vending, Ethan Palmer becomes a machine of confession and misdirection, dispensing memories, dreams, and thoughtful oddities like miscellaneous brain snacks factory-sealed behind plexiglass. This collection functions as an earnest homage to the struggle of self-promotion, where each poem delivers a heavily processed and often unhealthy aspect of the poet’s own mechanized and poorly-maintained sense of self. While the poet bangs his head against a cosmic mirror in a futile effort to jolt loose the truth that dangles on a hook, just out of reach, a genuine love for the absurd leaks onto everything inside, ensuring a beautiful, albeit messy, treat.