a garden just for us, by TaJuan Skai

Poetry, chapbook, 32 pages, from Bottlecap Features. In his debut poetry chapbook, TaJuan Skai utilizes his inner green thumb to the utmost in order to deliver a one-of-a-kind literary garden. Frolicking through the linguistic fields, readers will be left completely immersed in a land of familiar emotions expressed in unfamiliar ways. In its essence, a garden just for us is a chapbook about heartbreak, yet it’s the addition of themes such as religion, addiction, and identity that exponentially adds beauty to the work as a whole. Narratively taking place years after the relationship, Skai fluidly recounts the feelings and love he had for his partner while never pushing too far into the specifics and intricacies of the relationship itself. Little is known about who this person is, or what event led them to become separated in the first place, and it’s clear by such titles as “11/8/19” and, most notably, “h,” that this is intentional. Skai wants you to know that there is, at the very leas