Reviewed by Mary Beth Hines In her debut, award-winning collection, Persephone Heads for the Gate, Merrill Oliver Douglas spins a world saturated with color,
I turned into a bird-footed woman, a naked night orphan. Did I tell you? I tear a green bloom from the poisonous stinking hellebore.
Think of the hypnotizing scent of two ripe peaches in a bowl, how they can perfume the farthest corner of the house, and magnify
although I do have two with peony in the title. They’re the only flower I use, except gardenias. And dahlias. A stand of