A Body for Someone's Rich Son to Ruin, by Hunter Hodkinson

Poetry, chapbook, 36 pages, from Bottlecap Features. A Body For Someone’s Rich Son To Ruin is Hunter Hodkinson’s second chapbook, which chronicles the daily montonies of being a barista, and the carousel of disrespect that plagues the service industry as a whole. These poems engender the minimum wage, sore feet and cracked hands, nicotine addicted, housing insecure and sometimes hungry, but always kind despite the early hours, (“It is anathema to me/ how both of us rise as/ hopeful as we do…”) and erasure of identity due to class, (As far as they can tell/ I was born on top of/ this espresso machine…”) each word embraces the necessity of friendship in the workplace, (“She takes the local train home/ so I don’t have to be/ alone for most of/ my journey…”) both as an act of joy and an act of survival. Nonetheless, these poems aren’t afraid to be angry, to fight back; sometimes there is no other way to be, especially in late stage capitalism, where everything feels cruel and unfair. Recurring images of birds, both caged and flying free, as well as biblical ponderings appear throughout the pages, all trying to make sense of injustice. These poems are for those who feel forgotten by empire. These poems are what’s left of an identity after the hungry jaws of labor have had its fill. Hunter Hodkinson is a queer, Ohio-born poet, teacher, and editor, building community in Brooklyn and beyond. They teach at Brooklyn Poets and are the founder of Dead End Zine, a quarterly publication and press showcasing art, poetry, & interviews. Their work appears in Diode, december, Dream Boy Book Club, Abobo Zine and beyond, with work forthcoming from & Change, LONESOME, and Blue Bag Press. They are the author of Mean Gays (Tiny Cutlery, 2024). A Body For Someone’s Rich Son To Ruin is their second chapbook.