Jacob Alvarado

callista pitman, starmilk teeth.

windsor: zed press, 2022. $12.00.

Jam-packed with glittery imagery, otherworldly settings, and evocations of youthful memory, Starmilk Teeth is the sugar-rushed debut of poet Callista Pitman that establishes her as a unique talent to watch. “a fingers width from grown I ride home on my yellow bicycle, / /the sycamores hurling dreams at my skull/” begins “silverspoons”, a poem that describes a neighbourhood bike ride with the colourful gusto of a child mesmerized by a world that seems gigantic and grand. It’s by drawing from this youthful sense of wonderment, whether in its more playful poems like “dream logic” (“dynamite cupped in my palms. but no scratch that. not / dynamite. not anymore. a dove, an eruption of light”) or in it’s more profound ones like “ocean, topped with dreamfoam” (“soft blue fingers stretched with spiderwebbing. underwater, / my body expands into weightlessness.”) that Starmilk Teeth creates its magic, beckoning readers to join it on a journey into a more innocent, more exciting state of mind. Reminding its readers above all else that poetic expression can and should be joyful, Starmilk Teeth is an enrapturing read that will make even the most cynical reader feel like a kid again.

JACOB ALVARADO

is the editorial intern for The Ampersand Review of Writing & Publishing and a 4th-year student in the Creative Writing & Publishing program at Sheridan College. He lives and writes in Orangeville, Ontario.