Following his debut collection, The New Year of Yellow (Sarabande, 2007), Matthew Lippman takes his unmistakable style of poetry through the next evolution. Monkey Bars reveals a father’s “dollar driven” panic – concern about his children growing up in a world without bees and libraries but with too many overmedicated Americans­­ – one where Warren Buffett is the only person with any money. Despite the litany of worries, Monkey Bars reveals a deep awe for the human spirit and doesn’t hesitate to offer laugh-out-loud moments, as in “Dewey Decimaling,” where the narrator suggests morose librarians wary of their future should “drink more beer before work,” and, “no one should wear a bra.” Without a doubt, Lippman replaces the “blah” in poetry with a brave and silly bite, confirming his voice as a major force in twenty-first-century literature.