Black Maria.

Black Maria by Kevin Young Alfred A. Knopf, February 2005 $24.95, ISBN 1-400-04209-7

Incorporating the sensibilities of the blues into verse ain't no meaningless task. Check the blues-infused word workings of Amiri Baraka, Langston Hughes, Sterling Plumpp and Sonia Sanchez among others. Their inclination of hipping readers to that tough, bold, laugh-to-keep-from-crying ethos constitutes a serious literacy enterprise.

In recent years, Young has contributed to that long, rich tradition of making the music happen on the page. His most recent book reveals a poet with a gift for blues inflected storytelling.

Black Maria, a slang term for a police wagon or hearse, draws on the images and lexicon of detective movies. The book focuses on the adventures of a slick, soulful singer known as Delilah Redbone and a private eye, A.K.A. Jones, who tends to "drink a lot / about my thinking problem." Through a collection of sharp, humorous, and lyrical poems, Young exposes readers to the ruminations of Jones and Delilah in Shadowtown, a film noir-type city populated by fast talkers and tough timers, including The Hack, The Champ, The Gunsel, The Snitch and The Mooch.

The poems include witty put-downs and powerful boasts. For example, a character notes that "The Boss" was so villainous that "even his walking / stick was crooked."

Of course, readers can listen in on the narratives of the seductive Delilah, who states:

   I make men
   get religion when
   I strut by--Lordy,
   they say,
   My my--

Blending the spirit of the blues with elements of detective movies results in Young's hard-luck characters spinning stylized, entertaining narratives to spite their bruised experiences. Readers of multiple genres will enjoy Black Maria. Young's work reads like a novel, or, more accurately, like a screenplay.

Professor Howard Rambsy II teaches at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.