If Our Love Stays Above the Waist

Martin De Mello is a poet capable of dazzling with the familiar. Under his gaze, images, well-known from urban landscapes, become cultural exhibits that demand full attention. The modes of language that we scan through every day - from agendas and instruction sheets to texted missives and slang - become poems in their own right, leading us to question the boundaries we place between the inspired and the mundane. All the while, if our love stays above the waist is shot through with wry humour and moments of serenity without diluting an ounce of its realism and intensity.