Quarantine Highway by local poet Millicent Borges Accardi, is a collection of poetry that strikes an important balance between rejection and criticism and latterly, the everyday interactions and passing encounters that make up human existence at large. From the very start of this collection Accardi seeks to engage the reader beyond the concrete, and simultaneously, beyond the realm of mere possibility. “All was if and maybe and meanwhile� encapsulates the sentiment that Accardi manages to drip to the reader throughout. Accardi questions the impact of quarantine and the pandemic through the lens of the mundane made extraordinary. Examples of this can be seen with “a mere description of how it was not supposed to be� in relation to the U.S. census. Accardi compliments the strangeness of the pandemic with the musings of the mundane that spill over into food orders and social distancing jarring: We pray and we dream, to dominate, born only to distinguish, our weird worldly support system gone, all, within six feet of social distance and water droplets. Accardi grapples with the constraints and restraints that tested our collective humanity’s ability to endure the confines that resulted from the emergence of the pandemic. Accardi presents her own trials and errors that overlap with the pandemic but also with the emotions and actions and experiences that make the human experience so emotive, so raw and complex: We drift in this new future in the now of the stopped moment of where we are as we are being lost now, again, inside out and stuck in deep stagnancy, The awe-inspiring imagery and emotional depiction that Accardi so talentedly presents engages the reader beyond merely the words on the page and instead presents a world seldom considered; the thoughts and workings of the inner mind that are often in a world of their own: And, I am ashes, turning over to extinguish the inevitable. My civility, apparent, having a total hold on reality, shaken to ice once again. Such imagery engenders a sense of unique introspection that transcends this collection and highlights the bold tenacity of Accardi and her whimsical words. As a whole, “Quarantine Highway� is not a collection that is centered on the pandemic but a collection that speaks to the isolation, fragility and contrasting darkness and light that exist within all of us. This collection is one that should be savored on dark nights of the soul where one seeks to truly understand their mind. This collection wrestles with the intimate and the banal and makes the reader all the better for ruminating in its genius. Quarantine Highway is available from Flowersong Press (flowersongpress.com). Topanga poet Millicent Borges Accardi is an award-winning Portuguese-American writer, and the author of three full-length poetry books: “Injuring Eternity� (World Nouveau, 2010), “Only More So� (Salmon Poetry, 2016) and “Through a Grainy Landscape� (New Meridian Arts Press, 2021). Among her awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), California Arts Council, and Barbara Deming Foundation, “Money for Women.� She tweets: @TopangaHippie. A.R.Salandy is a Black Mixed-race poet and writer who has spent most of his life in Kuwait jostling between the UK and America. He has three published chapbooks, “The Great Northern Journey� (2020, Lazy Adventurer Publishing), and “Vultures� (2021, Roaring Junior Press), and a novel, “The Sands of Change� (2021, Alien Buddha Press). His chapbook, “Half Bred,� was the Winner of the 2021“The Poetry Question� Chapbook contest. Salandy is editor-in-chief of Fahmidan Journal and Poetry Editor at Chestnut Review. Twitter/Instagram: @arsalandy; arsalandywriter.com.