Neighborhood Watch, by Caleb Bouchard

Poetry, chapbook, 28 pages, from Bottlecap Features. Neighborhood Watch explores the pivot from the author’s pre-kid existence to parenthood. These poems almost read like journal entries from a homebody suburban dad. In “It Beats Watching Blippi,” Bouchard is confronted with an emergency diaper change on an otherwise peaceful morning. In “Neighborhood Watch,” the author ruminates on the humbling power of age and settling down, while hoping his young adult neighbors will have experiences “righteous and rebellious, just like them.” In “Road to Nowhere” a big stick becomes something magical, possibly leading to a new adventure. Accessible, narrative-driven, yet filled with complex emotions and dry, subdued humor, these poems attempt to uncover the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of home life. They are intimate, unapologetically domestic, and rendered in a distinctly millennial point of view. Caleb Bouchard is the author of The Satirist: Prose Poems, 79 Nonets, and a memoir, The Downside Up Year: A New Dad’s Diary (all titles published by Suburban Drunk Press). His writing has appeared in such places as The Chiron Review, Hanging Loose, Hobart, and Poet Lore. He teaches college English north of Atlanta, Georgia.