Warm tenderness and fiery critique sit sidebyside in Bolinas English as A Second Language a collection that skewers laments and celebrates America with intelligence humility and a disarming sense of humor.In Jaswinder Bolinaampampamp8217s English as A Second Language and Other Poems we are asked to imagine the tender and harsh realities of this world within a single breath a Steiff monkey resting next to a child in a crib and the tired hands of ampampquota thousand women in Sidi Bouzidampampquot assembling the stuffed animal. Coated in an armor of wit and humor and steeped in the idiosyncrasies of language English as a Second Languageampampamp160pits sentimentality against cynicism and the personal against the national. What remains is the kaleidoscopic image of the modern American condition.From elegy to persona wideranging poems tell the story of a child of immigrants becoming a parent against the tumultuous backdrop of our politics and culture.