The Silent Ones

The Silent Ones, Michael McMahon's sweeping debut, introduces a child dwelling in a garden of shadows that wound and sustain. "The Wish" suggests how he ties his father's sudden death to a grim jingle he mockingly directed at his napping father. The roots of his guilt are established in poems like "Quiet Time" and "Holy Writ" where the scowls of stern nuns in his Catholic grade school become internalized sources of shame. Juxtaposed to this guilt are poems like "Headwaters" and "Picnic at ...