Our Poison Horse is the newest poetry collection released by Derrick C. Brown. Brown is the winner of the Texas Book of The Year Prize, 2013. The New York Times calls his work a "...rekindling of the faith in the shocking, weird and beautiful power of words." Brown finally sold the ship, The Sea Section, upon which he lived for years in the Long Beach harbor, after which he took to hunting for a city that was affordable and had a bustling writer's community. He landed in Austin, Texas and when the progress of that town got to be intense, he moved to the nearby countryside in Elgin, Texas, and from that pastoral setting came unfurling this new collection of his most personal work to date. ,   , "There's something that happens when you read Derrick Brown, a rekindling of faith in the weird, hilarious, shocking, beautiful power of words."-- The New York Times "I love Derrick Brown for the surprise of one word waking up next to another. One moment tender, funny or romantic, the next, visceral, ironic and revelatory–here is the full chaos of life." -- Janet Fitch, White Oleander, Paint It Black Derrick C. Brown is a novelist, comedian, poet, and storyteller. He is the winner of the 2013 Texas Book of The Year award for Poetry. He is a former paratrooper for the 82nd Airborne. He is the owner and president of Write Bloody Publishing, which Forbes and Filter Magazine call "...one of the best independent poetry presses in the country." He is the author of eight books of poetry and four children's books. The New York Times calls his work "...a rekindling of faith in the weird, hilarious, shocking, beautiful power of words." He lives in Los Angeles. THE RUINED LIFE Your life is ruined when one lost person becomes a loved, low song and you stop searching for new music, convinced it will all sound the same. Your life is ruined when you won't make her dinner because you hate dirty dishes more than you love her. Your life is ruined when you hoped the violence you saw in him would protect you from the world, and how sad that it did. Your life is ruined when someone makes you choose science or miracles without seeing how well they party. Your life is ruined when you realize too late that the magic it takes to change someone exhausts all your magic. Your life is ruined when all your friends tell you to get married because it makes buying a house easier but you never see them cause it demands so much work. Your life is ruined when you begin to rebuild your home before the last bomb falls and the war is declared over. Your life is ruined when people holding hands while riding bikes just seems dangerous. MENDER/ DESTROYER Cristin and I were chatting about her break up, her new life how everything was brand new and then-- her chair broke and she fell to the floor like mashed potatoes. She didn't cry. She just laid there, stretched out and looked like an extra, waiting for action to be called in a catastrophe film. When a poet eats it, they begin sorting out the meaning of all broken chairs, of all support surprising you and caving in suddenly, unsure of what sucks more- the bruise or having to check chairs for the rest of your life. I helped her up. Swung open the glass door. I threw the chair high into the backyard air and watched it shatter. "Fuck this chair. This chair is from the forest of assholes. This chair can eat my hot fuck and die." Cristin then quietly went outside, barefoot collected the pieces from the grass and took it into the garage so she could fix it. "It didn't break. I broke it."