Exit Music

“Exit Music is a song of limits sung anyway. The statements, predictions, suspicions, and conclusions point to ‘a brutal economy [that] rules the playground.’ The cadence is solemn and then not. There is aphorism and narrative. There are laugh lines. ‘Gravity poses a credible threat.’ Rhyme helps us consider the ineffable and inevitable, as well as current events. ‘Calamities traded as futures abound./ He made his bones manufacturing consent/ While the ship of state ran aground.’ The voice of experience expresses what Californians (and by extension all of us) know. ‘In an actual emergency, you’re on your own.’ This is a book to include in your survival kit.”

—Laura Moriarty