Poetry. This newest collection from celebrated poet Eric Hoffman, comprised of forty discrete sections, is a powerful and stark rumination on human economy, public and private, personal and impersonal, a haunting exploration of the struggle for survival in uncertain times. Utilizing sources as diverse as Thomas Malthus and Bruegel the Elder, Hoffman, with his distinctive subtlety, clarity, and concision, has written a precise, allegorical meditation on the forces of power, coercion, and exploitation that bind us, and the redemption of charity, love, and community that offer us perhaps our only true freedom from the chains of history.