Lovesick Stormtroopers, dowsing Girl Guides, movie stars, pool hustlers and the mad queen Ranavalona . . . With Knife Throwing Through Self-Hypnosis, Robin Richardson charts a path through a surreal otherworld that is at once carnal and aerial, fine-grained and crude. Yearning, unapologetic women who delight in the monsters they’ve created make these poems a shield made of braids, / bassinet of broadswords, ‘ and ‘a ghost-like choir where a love affair / becomes a pulp-book, plotted perfectly to end.”