Download or read book Imperial Liquor written by Amaud Johnson and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2020-03-16 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist, 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, 2021 Rilke Prize Imperial Liquor is a chronicle of melancholy, a reaction to the monotony of racism. These poems concern loneliness, fear, fatigue, rage, and love; they hold fatherhood held against the vulnerability of the black male body, aging, and urban decay. Part remembrance, part swan song for the Compton, California of the 1980s, Johnson examines the limitations of romance to heal broken relationships or rebuild a broken city. Slow Jams, red-lit rooms, cheap liquor, like seduction and betrayal—what’s more American? This book tracks echoes, rides the residue of music “after the love is gone.”