"In Ordinary Cruelty, a bereaved daughter is a watchful mother is a queer and hungry lover is a black woman is America. Amber Flame knows how to sing, and these poems do sing. But these poems also wail and hush and sound an urgent siren: we are not okay. Here is a poet who is generous enough to be real with her readers about what it means to be human. Each poem reminds- yes we're lonely, we're hunted, we're terrifyingly mortal, but still somehow we love (and love and love). This is a book to keep close and return to; tender company in a time that wants to tear us apart."
- Elaina Ellis, Associate Editor at Copper Canyon Press
