Cant Be Wrong

"Something Back" goes a long way toward capturing the wryness in Michael Lally's poetic tone: "I never had a backache before / I started working out, / now I'm like all those other / jock Adonises, pretending to be / the healthiest man you've ever / scanned when it's all a sham . . . ." Self-consciousness, awareness of absurdity, and underlying fear (of aging, in this case) mark a great deal of these poems, whether they're about relationships, religion, or some other important folly. Lally is an insightful, entertaining writer.