it was never going to be okay by jaye simpson is a moving collection of razor-sharp poems. Broken into four parts, part one opens with the speaker asking to be called sea glass, which is smooth, round, and beautiful. Glass is a recurring image throughout the collection, signifying both the potential to cut, and the potential to break. Indeed, simpson employs a beautiful breathy and broken line that dances across the page throughout the collection:
“Poetry is transformative,” says Hustling Verse co-editor Justin Ducharme in the marketing material for the anthology of poetry by sex workers, “I believe this book can change minds.”