B. Horror

Wendell Mayo’s second collection probes what lies behind the dailyness of life by using horror movie images and plots as metaphors. Has Robert’s bride forsaken her selfness for Robert just as the Mummy did for the Egyptian princess? Will an older brother’s lifelong efforts in mimicking Godzilla eventually reach through to his ever more withdrawn sister? Or are there depths that even “Big Greenie” can’t plummet? Do werewolves stalk the streets of a Lithuanian village? Or do the vintage WWII fighter planes flying overhead remind us that something much more horrible, much more concrete, might yet remain? While Mayo’s vision is dark, it is not unremittingly so. In the playful “Who Made You” the Baltimore Catechism’s rote questions offer an unexpected anchor to a couple on the verge of separation and financial disaster. Dark or light Mayo’s skein of words threads insistently, beautifully, and poignantly.