"While You Were Out" is a short set of poems by shelbyjd (twitter). Shelby expresses that it is "written at and largely about work. It's about the things I worry about on the job: politics, being a closeted trans person, having friends go to jail, possibly having a mental illness." I love the design of this one through and through. It's hand-written and hand-drawn all the way thorough on (I believe) scanned slips of paper from some sort of workplace communications notepad. I love seeing which poems are on the front with the checklists and lines and serial numbers and which poems are written all over the blank backsides of these slips. For a chapbook about work, it conveys the invasion of work into one's own internal mind and life perfectly. The pen scribbles on each respective slip convey so much varied meaning about the poem. It's a physical interaction with the paper it was written on that I really love.
"If you are reading this any time between 1787 and now, American democracy is an oxymoron."