In Meg Johnson’s second full length poetry collection, The Crimes of Clara Turlington, women break the rules and pass for good girls. As the poem Slugger reveals, “I could never be / a suspect, cardigan / and pink lips.” Clara Turlington and her contemporaries are contradictions, both trouble-making thrill seekers and faultless products of their environment. “… I didn’t know / my mind would become a neon / death scene …” (Ex’s Exit). Scandalous, yet heartfelt, The Crimes of Clara Turlington, is indeed a “furry pink pillow full of blood and teeth.”
