“I Shop for Love at La Segunda: A Review of Tony Robles’ Thrift Store Metamorphosis”

So what if Kafka’s character transforms into a cockroach?

The real metamorphosis happens in the heart.

In his new collection of poetry, Thrift Store Metamorphosis, Tony Robles hits you, yet heals you in your heart. Love is everywhere, especially in the places, things, and people we have abandoned. With grace and mercy, Robles gifts us hand-me-down poetry that is new life.  

In “Pick-Up Policy”, instead of Gwendolyn Brooks’ old couple eating beans with plain chipware, a young couple, just kids themselves with a young child, finally pick up a used table and chairs, and Robles sees that the world doesn’t value this young Black family, and in his mind, he wishes them well, but feels

“Only wish I had

Said it to their face”.

We can forgive even ourselves.

And just like that, the larvae turns into a caterpillar that turns into the butterfly. Robles’ young couple metamorphosizes into Brooks’ old couple, something new and different, the spirit that never stops, no matter what it is up against.  

Throughout Tony’s book, in the funky old clothes with their forgotten poetry, there is something new.

The smell of the streets keeps us honest.

To purchase Tony’s new book, please click here:

https://redhawkpublications.com/Thrift-Store-Metamorphosis-p586497309

Link to Gwendolyn Brooks’ “Bean Eaters” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/28110/the-bean-eaters