The Tribute Horse

Book excerpt: Brandon Som's The Tribute Horse unearths strange knowledge about the ways migration acts upon and is affected by a body's language, culture, perception and physical manifestations. Using found text, prose poem and Oulipian narrative, Som constructs a poetry deep in its theoretical rigor, ravishing in its sonic pleasure, and delicate in its formal constructions, drawing from various sources, including Chinese painting, Japanese photography, and narrative of immigrants through Angel Island, including that of his own grandfather.