Mercurial, or Is That Liberty

Rachelle Rahmé

The debut poetry collection by Lebanese-American poet Rachelle Rahmé, Mercurial, or Is That Liberty? is the work of a dual citizen—dual in conscience, dual in political allegiance, in exteriority, in friction with gender’s dualism, aspiration’s dualism, and the ache of the ethical.

A lyrical reckoning with a dualism that has been accepted, rejected, embedded in an endless cycle of self-critique, until the border between its apparent halves became chipped, scuffed, no longer fitting together, then scoured, submerged in a watery subconscience, faded, and a gradient was formed by the fractal nature of its bonding, making something mercurial, or is that liberty?