While Dr. Williams reached a point at which there would be "no one to drive the car," this Ship of State hurtles through the noosphere manned and womaned by a truly motley cr e. But the printer is off-line and the codes for the remote control remain sealed. Equal parts Rube Goldberg and dystopic Brazil, with touches of Lovecraft, Burroughs, Ed Dorn and so much more, it is exceedingly difficult to fully describe or account for both the utter seriousness and the uproariously madcap qualities of this latest installment to the growing oeuvre of Andr Spears. Hilarious, terrifying, and exquisitely erudite in its metric and other exegetic manifestations, Ship of State steers poetry on a desperately needed new course. --Ammiel Alcalay