This Lambda Literary Award nominee is a book of fierce, original poetry by one of San Francisco's leading poets and performers. Educated without being didactic, lyrical without being doggerel, passionate without being over the top and sexy without being prurient, Why Things Burn is everything poetry should be, without many of the things that poetry unfortunately is. These pieces work both in performance and on the page. They tackle sexuality, lesbian issues, rape, modern urban living, and the author's Jewish heritage, with a sometimes kooky but always sophisticated view of life.