There was a young man from the Bronx,— / Loved drawing and redrawing ankhs

Brake light out; kid turned on by a doll. / Serpentine belt blew, melted the motor. / The speed limit is not the speed limit. /

Anthony Madrid's debut collection of poetry, I Am Your Slave Now Do What I Say, is the poetic equivalent of a Bollywood dance routine: Rambunctiously over the top, colorful, humorous, and, even if by virtue of its own audacious strangeness, a thrill to witness.

I BALANCED a sword on my head, dropped to my knees and earnestly vowed / I would never again APOLOGIZE on command. // I am done with Apology Culture, done with tendering and accepting. If I’m / Commanded, I refuse; forced to listen, I stop my ears.