A Review of Drew Pisarra's 'Infinity Standing Up'

The Complex, Humorous Labyrinth of Lust in Infinity Standing Up

By Stephanie Valente

"I’d like to climb inside your mouth feet first," Infinity Standing Up by Drew Pisarra opens with this superb and playful line. It's fantastical. It's modern love at work. Expressing urgency and curiosity in one fell swoop, the collection dives into the sublime universal truths we experience with infatuation, love, and sexuality. Prepare to grip and savor each sonnet, laugh at conundrums, and nod your head in agreement.

The rhymes and zigzags are reminiscent, if not mimicking actual thought patterns during arousal and sheer encapsulation. Pisarra muses in Sonnet 666: "You must be the Devil himself for how/else to explain this freewheeling desire." The enchantment behind love and infatuation is something we all experience – riding fixed gear into a tunnel-vision universe with our beloveds. And for all of the sonnet's lust-filled enthusiasms, it's not without humor. And that's just what love and sex is: passionate, funny, complicated, messy, and nuanced. The poet spares no barbs in the line, "Hey shlong, listen up." No moment is too private, too personal, or unworthy of exploration. Love is, um, hard.

In the same vein, Pisarra's sonnets and intentions are to highlight the vulnerable need to be seen and to feel connected. While the poet creates a common ground with humor, the real connectivity solidifies with longing: "I’d be lying if I said this old heart didn’t/ache, that my nights aren’t restless, that a dream/didn’t fade." Pisarra is speaking to all of us: we've been the lover, the scorned, the ghost, and the ghosted. We're on the seesaw of lust, moving up, up, up, and up still.

Stephanie Valente lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works as an editor. One day, she would like to be a silent film star. She is the author of Hotel Ghost (Bottlecap Press, 2015) and Waiting for the End of the World (Bottlecap Press, 2017). Her work has appeared in dotdotdash, Nano Fiction, LIES/ISLE, and Uphook Press. She can be found at her website.