Are Not Our Lowing Heifers Sleeker Than Night-Swollen Mushrooms?

Author: Nada Gordon 

Publisher: Spuyten Duyvil (2001)

The latter-day romantic heroine of Gordon's book-length series, Are Not Our Lowing Heifers Sleeker Than Night-Swollen Mushrooms? (title courtesy of Keats), assumes various sub-personas, calling herself "I," "`I'" and "i," speaking variously in all capital letters, all lower-case, and orthographically correct mixes thereof. Our heroine cracks jokes about Victorian constructions of femininity (""Why is an unbound book like a young maiden in bed?""), explores her self-perception ("i don't know why / i am always wanting you / someone to have my interiority"), tells bald-faced lies, has plenty of sex and continually distracts herself and whoever might try to cut her down to size: "If you are still confused / by the form, invoke / its creator, its secret / prey. Jolly with / composition, she / has stretched / her lower lip / up over her head."