Description

Milkweed Editions, paperback

Publication Date: April 15, 2025

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From award-winning poet Chris Santiago, a far-reaching collection of erasures and original poems examining the long shadow of American militarism andimperialism.

Stemming in part from a disturbingly mundane military document of the same name,Small Wars Manualis a how-to for imperialism that critically dismantles itself with each passing line, a pidgin // containing elements // of animus and // insubordination. In its wake, the very boundaries of oppression and resistance, art and justice, and power and truth areexploded.

Highly conceptual yet gut-wrenching, this meticulous and visionary masterpiece of erasure poetry and other forms sinks into the cold mechanics of American warfare in the Philippines and Vietnam to reveal a brutal rhetoric. In more autobiographical sections, Chris Santiagos own Filipino immigrant background reveals hard-lived experiences, where stars can guide // either bayonets // or refugees and even small wars waged // on the living room floor cause trepidation andharm.

This righteous collection redeems the vulnerable from the aggressorsempire, army, their systems and toolsand transforms everything in the process. In the hands of Santiago, the deconstructive becomes the eviscerating, condemning all wars that upend countries and mark generations. Here are shining poems that make shelter of chaos, by one of the most skillful and intrepid poets writingtoday.