Proof of a Tongue

Proof of a Tongue eloquently establishes a new poetic voice worthy of serious attention. Sandra Alland writes with dry wit and mature assurance, grounding a sophisticated metaphysical vocabulary in the colloquial. Language is a perfect tool in her hands. Proof of a Tongue describes Scarborough as a ‘town of serial killers and suicide vistas’ and asserts that inflection can soothe with ‘miraculous breath.’ From ‘the sadness teenage girls have difficulty naming’ to boys who draw ‘VanGogh/Kahlo sandwiches’ Sandra Alland gazes slyly at life, smoothly piercing the surfaces of meaning. Alland exerts a deft control of subject and language.