PARTIAL VIEWS
A Collection of Poetry
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Nobody Knows
Her fingers drum on the steering wheel during a red light.
A trembling chaos of precision and subtlety underneath.
I’m at the Blue Note. Or at Casa Del Jazz in Rome.
I’m in a Subaru. This is going on right next to me and nobody knows.
I am listening with my body to the percussion
of her hands, flutterthumping. She is oblivious
to how this thrills me. I sit in the passenger seat
and open my legs a little to the sound of it.
It used to piss me off how great she is. What was she doing here,
driving her mother to CVS, cleaning her toilet? Why wasn’t she touring
in Tokyo, grabbing a bite with Joni Mitchell's side men,
checking with her tour manager about where they go after Paris?
There are a thousand answers. There are no answers.
But when I sit across the table from her, or we’re stuck in traffic,
the rhythms electrify her fingers like children spilling
through the doors at recess, full on and ferocious.
The beat bumps break dance into the dashboard and up my thighs,
and I let the conversation coast, hold my breath, my ears recording,
hoping nothing breaks the spell and frightens her feral fingers away.
It's a gift from her and only her, for me and only me.
And nobody knows. Not even her.
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About the Book
In this debut collection of poems, Tina Lear sends some tenderness to the little girl hiding in plain sight, the woman sleeping around long after it isn’t fun anymore, the mother screaming at her kids, the wife trying to jump out the window of a marriage on fire, and the daughter watching Jeopardy with her ancient, bedridden mother.
Lear’s work stings with resonance and pulls laughter from the darkness. She tells the whole truth with a fractal memory. Divided into six sections, her poems range from a swim in the river of youth, to the hard road of marriage and motherhood, all the way to waning days of very old age, and the nectar that comes from all of it—ending with a whimsical look at possible worlds.
Partial Views is a love letter to all the ways in which we try and fail and try again to meet our reflection in the mirror and whisper yes.
About the Author
Tina Lear has been writing ever since she could hold a pencil. She is the author of four musicals, countless poems, and articles published in Tricycle Magazine. She has taught yoga at Rikers Island, driven cattle in Wyoming, and performed her songs nationwide. This is her first published collection of poems.