The four young male Native American poets in this collection write poems about urban decay and homelessness, about loneliness and despair, about Payday Loans and 40-ounce beers, about getting enough to eat and too much to drink. Their poems are often raw, coarse and vulgar, just like the lives they describe.They write about life on the reservation where life is a lot like life in the city, but without the traffic.These poets are bound by a common attitude as well as a common heritage. All four – Joel Waters, Steve Pacheco, Kurt Schweigman (who writes under the name Luke Warm Water), and Trevino L. Brings Plenty – are Sioux, and all four identify themselves as “Skins”. In their poems, they grapple with their heritage, wrestling with what it means to be a Sioux and a Skin today.
