The Friday Poem recommends Ron Koertge’s I DREAMED I WAS EMILY DICKINSON’S BOYFRIEND

Koertge inhabits – and endows – his various subjects with insight and humour, dealing out poems in the voices of car crash dummies, Aphrodite, Mickey Mouse, Little Red Riding Hood, and the Bride of Frankenstein, among others.

All this sounds as if the collection is a laugh-a-minute, superficial thing. It’s not. It is funny, yes, but also affectionate, quirky, surreal, and occasionally pretty dark.