American Mules by Martina Evans Vala Thorodds to the dangers and unsettling

to the dangers and unsettling violences of the contemporary world

subtly humorous

looks on with a mixture of pride and worry

Sight becomes both the facilitator and impediment of desire

taken mostly from the Odyssey – about a minor character

American Mules by Martina Evans Vala Thorodds to the dangers and unsettlingMartina Evans's eponymous Mules are shoes brought to her as an exotic gift by an American relation. They suggest to her the possibility of a very different world, one which the poems' speakers set out to explore. As happens often in her poems, new and invented experiences throw into relief Evans's own intensely lived experiences: the radiography units of hospitals and their merciless work culture, in which the speakers must survive; a London densely