Throwback: Razor Burn by Emma Rhodes

I did not expect to write this review.

Razor Burn by Emma Rhodes is a chapbook published by Anstruther Press. I ordered this book — I don’t usually read poetry, but am a curious reader. When it arrived in my mailbox I noticed that a person had to carry this slim package from the publisher’s to a Shoppers Drug Mart on King Street West. No city was named within the large circular postage cancellation stamp. But, immediately I felt a human connection to this mail. The stiff envelope was hand-addressed, with a clearly printed message: DO NOT BEND.

Whoever mailed my book order took an inordinate amount of care to make sure, to make absolutely sure, that it was received in perfect condition. This must contain something of great value, I thought.

I carefully opened the package, and slipped out the book. Razor Burn, what do you have inside your covers?

I planned to read “My Queer” — just one entry. The first poem. Before I knew it, I was reading the poems, one after the other. There is a connectedness to the them, a story told in a secret code. A code known to poets, a telling of their soul, to be discovered by readers as a revelation of their humanness. A code of humanness for both the author and their reader.

Razor Burn is a deep and beautiful, sorrowful, yet hopeful, series of coming-of-age tales. It is a coming-of-age, for any age. There is the search for identity, the yearning for love, the torturous pleasing for mere acceptance. The narrator speaks of her love of Amy, her best friend; the heartache of leaving home; and the quest for something new, waiting just around the corner.

Razor Burn is a deep and beautiful, sorrowful, yet hopeful, series of coming-of-age tales. It is a coming-of-age, for any age.

In “My Queer”, there is self discovery, and “Razor Burn”, the chapbook’s namesake, asks why must I change to be accepted? The leaving and “never mind’” happens anyway. In “Suburbia I”, Rhodes describes “the kind of porn I like”:

                              The kind of porn I like
                                                     is bright,
                                                     fun, unexpected like
squirrels
             chasing each other across
             front lawns in suburbia. Playful. Full
                                                    of movement and
free.

The final work is “Here and everywhere, I miss you”:

When I walk down Princess street I walk
                                     down Queen street
                                     down Brentwood ave and stop
                                            at the swing set to chat with you.

I realize Rhodes’ narrator has changed her location, searching for home, and finds a raw loneliness. Is home where she has left, where she has travelled to, or is home who she is, regardless of where she finds herself? The hope is there, because she is there, moving onward.

This chapbook took my breath away. Razor Burn by Emma Rhodes forced me to look at the courage it takes to grow up, to venture boldly into adulthood, and to leave behind your life, only to find you are your life. This book order was packaged with care because this book was written in the same manner. With care. This is about being human no matter who you love, how you love, or where you love. DO NOT BEND. I’m richer for reading Razor Burn. It grabbed me, it encouraged me to write, it inspired me. And, like works of inspiration, it has become part of me. Little did I know when I opened the cardboard envelope a world of words would strike me to my core.

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Emma Rhodes (she/her) is a queer writer currently living and working in Tkaronto/Toronto. She is the author of the chapbook Razor Burn (Anstruther Press). She is a member of the Egg Poets, who published the chapbook All Things to Keep You Here (Qwerty). Her work has been published in Contemporary Verse 2, Prism International, Plenitude, and elsewhere. She works as a literary publicist, and is the Co-Editor in Chief of The Miramichi Reader.

Publisher: Anstruther Press (January 2023)
ISBN: 978-1-988774-03-6

Carrie Stanton

Managing Editor

TMR’s Managing Editor Carrie Stanton has a BA in Political Science from the University of Calgary. She is the author of The Jewel and Beast Bot, and picture books, Emmie and the Fierce Dragon and The Gardener. Carrie loves to write stories that grow wings and transport readers everywhere. She reads and enjoys stories from every genre.