Evil is the theme of this second book by Karr ( Abacus, LJ 9/15/87), and these dark poems are movingly adept. Her material is challenging. ``Coleman,'' the first and best poem, is about a fatal run-in between a small-town gang and the black Southern teenager whom the narrator loves. Not only can Karr handle this kind of subject matter without sentimentality; she is also accomplished at natural-sounding formal meter: ``When he stands to cough the syrup from his lungs,/ arrive to sponge him cool, and he cries no/ and no and no, the only syllable'' (``Croup''). Occasionally, Karr moves beyond the tight confessional lyric at which she excels to the third-person narrative: in ``Don Giovanni's Confessor,'' for example, the appalled sinner confesses to his priest, who is then thrust into his own horrific recollection. While the jacket blurb claims that Karr writes ``for everyday readers,'' these are complex, intellectual poems. They demand and withstand many readings, and for that one can be grateful. Recommended.-- Ellen Kaufman, Dewey Ballantine Law Lib., New York
