Review by Elizabeth Rendfleisch

ONE OF US ONE NIGHT
by Mark Wisniewski

Platonic 3Way Press, PO Box 844, Warsaw, IN 46581; chapbook, 48pp., $5

http://Platonic3WayPress.com

The poems in Mark Wisniewski's One of Us One Night are plainspoken, direct, and profound. In scenes from New York to Nebraska to California, what catches Wisniewski's attention is civility--the way we get along (or don't) with our partners, our neighbors, and our environment. In "10 Seconds," an exchange with in-laws stays civil only through careful maneuvering; in "Open Gym at the V.A.," a basketball game highlights the tensions between those who served in Vietnam and one who did not; in "Mute," a drive in the suburbs opens up conflicts between the government and its electorate, rich and poor, and black and white.
 
Each poem contains a story, and, more than that, a revelation. "Mute" seems at first to be a rant against mindless suburban excess, but then we're reminded of "the black school girl/ forced to wear her i.d./ strung around her neck," and the unwritten rules of the suburbs take on a more sinister air. In " San Antonio," boarders politely ignoring their neighbor's activities are held to account, as "if any man/ wealthy or not/ simply breathes/ long enough/ he can work hell/ into angels." The everyday interactions found in these poems are familiar to us, but in Wisniewski's hands they are magnified, allowing us to see ourselves and our world in a light we hadn't known existed.
 
Wisniewski's poetry has appeared in lit mags high and low--from POETRY to ZEN BABY and everywhere in between--and in this, his first (and long-overdue) poetry collection, the reader gets a healthy dose of his worldview in 48 beautifully produced pages. The chap is gorgeous, funny, smart, thought-provoking, and a steal at $5.