Zachary Schomburg—Portland poet and author of The Man Suit, Scary No Scary, Fjords, vol. 1, and most recently, The Book of Joshua—writes poetry that is by turns funny and horrifying. Reading his poems is akin to being a small child, and having an adult tell you an awful story that you're pretty sure you're too young to hear, and yet somehow you can't get yourself to stop laughing. Either that, or vicious cautionary tales for misbehaving children. This is due, in part, to Schomburg's phrasing, always simple, even childlike—a deceptively light vehicle for writing that borders on the grotesque and hits a high threshold for creepiness, violence, and sorrow.

Take the title poem from Schomburg's second collection, Scary No Scary (emphasis mine):

One night, when / you return to your childhood / home after/ a lifetime away, / you'll find it / abandoned... The old man / hunched over / at the front door / will be prepared / to give you a tour, / but first he'll ask / Scary, or no scary? / You should say / No scary.

I mean, "you should say 'no scary'"? There is so much about that line, and this poem, that is completely nightmarish and odd, but it's funny. And there's more where that came from—Schomburg has written about a three-year-old boy who lives in a cave full of dead bird bodies, humans dressed as food and animals dressed as humans, and gigantic trebuchets on fire.

Tomorrow night, September 20, Zachary Schomburg reads with Joshua Nathaniel Covington White, Nathan Wade Carter, and Ryan Mills at Ford Food & Drink (SE 11th & SE Division) at 7 pm, as part of Bone Tax Press's reading series. If someone asks if you want to go, you should say yes.