Between The Sexes

What is the chance
she smiles
on this rivalry declared
in the unspoken

as chivalry, even one
glance
shot
in the glass, while

ahead he waits holding
the door half-open, half-closed.

Andrew Steinmetz's second collection of poetry turns a clinical eye on his favourite subjects - love, marriage, power, fantasy, and art. At the crossroads of the credos "know thyself" and "heal thyself," Steinmetz adopts a "hurt thyself" attitude that is sardonic and compassionate. Using a tersely sensitive language that relies on the poet's own speaking voice, Hurt Thyself betrays a slightly ominous and skewed philosophical rigor. The implications of the poet's examined life are poems that feel emotionally exposed yet discriminating and sceptical.