The Mark News delves into Neighbour Procedure

Excerpted from The Mark News:

Neighbour Procedure engages. 'Grievable' is a poem that lists names of people who have been killed. The poem that follows is entitled 'Nominal.'

Separately, these two poems are disorienting. Who are these people? What do the numbers mean? But, when reading them in sequence, one poem following in the heels of the other, the reader realizes that the names are connected to the numbers, which are ages. Ma’sud Rajab Muhammad Subuh was 65 years old when he was killed. Zaher Jaber Muhammad al-Majdalawi was 13 years old. Layer this information onto another poem, 'Did not participate in hostilities' and you have map.

Neighbour Procedure speaks from an epicenter of crisis and it does so in the most arresting language. Zolf manipulates the obfuscating language of media and government that obscures the individual and, ultimately, renders it indelible and hauntingly present. One finishes the collection with an invective: What kind of neighbour am I? What kind of neighbour can I be?