Irreverent, pop culture-obsessive and contemplative, Shitting on Elves & Other Poems is a Dadaistic self-portrait of twins in an existential playground, where everyone and no one gets hurt too badly. But it does hurt. For all of the celebratory preoccupation with companions of the deep, in the rough schoolyard play, you know something is wrong, Mr. Jones. Something more than a skinned knee. Truth slips between meanings, some words become other words, a conceptual kind of magician's poetry that skips through a mine field of radioactive icons and self-detonating idols, each itinerant reflection, each telegraphic puzzle, expiring in zany isolation and nostalgia. We have come to this. Bankrupt and rejoicing. This twitchy book of poetry is history and hope. You read it. --Michael Rothenberg