apple falls far

Jess Eternamente Fraga's book of poetry Apple Falls Far is a reckoning with the fate of one's birth-which blesses us or condemns us to the caretakers of our childhood: parents, siblings, and extended family, all those people we inherit through no choice of our own. Every writer must, at one time or other in their career, deal with the indelible psychic episodes they, as children, must experience in the arduous task of growing up. Needless to say, for a girl who discovers early in life that she is gay with intolerant parents, this task can be like walking through a gauntlet line from hell just to reach the goal of adulthood. In these poems, the poet declares she "pulls off scabs." Yet, in what is essentially recollections of a terribly dysfunctional family, readers will also find some humor and joy, as we see the strength and courage it took for Eternamente Fraga to find her authentic place in the world-a poet with a unique voice and a lover of displaced human beings who, like herself, have struggled and succeeded to overcome their families, and live a life filled with hope. -Mario Rene Padilla