Xanax Cowboy

Hannah Green's edgy, often darkly comedic debut, Xanax Cowboy, is a long poem that considers the romanticization of addiction and mental illness (particularly in relation to the notion of the artist) via the romanticization of the Wild West. Cowboys are supposed to be messed up, a bit raw around the edges. The speaker wants to be loved for this too, and doesn't care if she is the only one laughing.

The long poem is known for its resistance to form and expectation. Xanax Cowboy is as obsessed with itself as other long poems. It is vain. It is ridiculous. It is a tangent with new shapes, line breaks, and metaphors. Highly referential, mostly in terms of pop culture and iconography -- drawing from sources such as Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid and the films of Quentin Tarantino -- Xanax Cowboy also deploys a specifically feminist approach, giving it additional urgency and energy.

Xanax Cowboy insists on its variety of form and approach. Its strangeness. Its boldness. Its smoking pistols. Prepare yourself for a whiskey-drenched Western where pills fall from the sky and the speaker swallows Hollywood's version of the cowboy, its loneliness resting in her belly.