Author(s): Claire Orchard

Poetry

any home boils down to one of two options:
the place you're on your way back to
or the place you're leaving.

In Liveability, Claire Orchard places us vividly in the lives, pasts, futures and homes of others: A young farmer obsessively photographs snowflakes in wintry Vermont. A pair of geckos named Romeo and Juliet live out their lives in an ice-cream container. A CPR manikin contemplates their resuscitator, Leonard Nimoy peers through the TV screen into a family living room, while a girl reaches her own conclusion about who is bravest of them all.

An ode to the eccentricities and occasional sorrows of the everyday, Liveability is also a joyous and witty celebration of the otherworldly.