"Gravesite Reservations," the first poem from Shawnte Orion's chapbook, The Infernal Gaze, ends in a haunting, insightful line: "I want to give everyone their own shovel." Perhaps the most realized poem from the chapbook, "Gravesite Reservations" explores a kind of socio-political stance on not only the way Orion views himself in relation to the world, but the state of the world in general.

On the surface, Infernal Gaze, which won the Red Booth Review's Fourth Chapbook Contest, mines the idea of being a part of a much larger layout. On another level, Orion's focus is so large that he's unable to reconcile his own musings with the poem's intended meaning. Constellations and heaven are common themes throughout the chapbook as a counterweight to his otherwise down to earth observations. Instead of unifying Infernal Gaze with repetitive images, they make the poems read like an incomplete thought.

The scope of these poems is out of reach and needlessly complicated with no real core idea. His word usage, especially in "Diving Through Plankton" and "Observations From the Lipstick Counter" read as if they were plucked for their sound, not meaning. At its heart Infernal Gaze is a snapshot of Orion's mind with all of the complexities and surreal images that compose our inner selves. Clarity and structure are needed to make these images come together. While the driving force behind these poems are the melting of impressions and ideas about the meaning of it all, they are unable to deliver an answer, only mismatched ponderings.