POETRY

The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded

by Molly McCully Brown
Persea. Mar. 2017. 80p. ISBN 9780892554782. pap. $15.95. POETRY
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Born with cerebral palsy, Brown grew up near the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, a singular set of circumstances that led to this striking first collection. The American eugenics movement originated at the colony, and Brown allowed herself to imagine the horror of being an inmate there by working through several fictional personae. That's a potent enough set-up, but she doesn't let it do her work for her, using effectively pinpointed language to tell her story. "You come back bone-tired and bruised,/ burned dead out and ready to be shut away," she says of those sent out for day labor. And elsewhere: "Imagine you are/ an animal/ in your own throat."
VERDICT Brown accomplishes her task admirably, and her work will appeal not just to poetry readers.
Reviewed by Barbara Hoffert , Apr 15, 2017
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