Review of "Fake News Poems," by Martin Ott

Review of

Fake News Poems, by Martin Ott ISBN 9781609643225

Five out of five stars

 I really enjoyed the format of this collection of short works of prose. Each is titled by a headline taken from a publication, there is one for each week of the year and the title appeared in a news publication that week in the year 2017. The first thought that you have is, “Is that headline true or not?” Not are so wild as to exceed the limits of plausibility.

 For example, on page 27 there is the title, “Suspect Hands Monopoly ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card to Deputy.” This is right into the “stupid criminal” area that it is thoroughly believable. The one on page 33 is in fact true. It is “Determined Dad Won’t Let A Tornado Stop Him From Mowing the Lawn.” The reference is to a Canadian man and there are pictures to prove it. While I made no attempt to verify the factual nature of many of the headlines, I suspect that the majority are true.

 The prose is fairly good and holds to the title fairly well. There are many references to American President Donald Trump and not flattering. The poem on page 29 is title “You’re Fired” and the opening lines are “The man who drops the axe on many heads may not have giant hands. He was always there with us, an empty suit  with elongated tie, a scarecrow stuffed with dissonance and disgust.”

 These poems are not deep, but I suggest that you read them more than once, for it is easy to overlook some of the subtler references to life and current affairs.