Roma Roam

Nathalie Handal's ninth collection, Roma Roam, chronicles an unraveling after the discovery of a lover's betrayals. These bold poems explore power, freedom, water, memory, and "how / we hold history in our splitting bodies." The speaker opens herself to the opacity of human connections where "passion can be a seafarer, / a daily resurrection" and "faithfulness / a long hesitation." Who—or what—do we betray when we roam other bodies? What roles do history, religion, art, and culture play in our infidelities? Rome stands as a crossroads of Mediterranean migration and diaspora—a symbolic center where cultures and civilizations interact and transform one another. What happens when the past and present, the city and the lover, truth and falsehood collide? Roma Roam offers a startling way of fathoming the enigmatic world—and our tenuous belonging within it. Wild, sexy, visionary, and unpredictable, the collection insists on desire as both rupture and revelation.