Steven Leyvasampampamp160second collection of poetry renders beauty through a Black manampampamp8217s lens in a postpandemic world populated with superheroes and characters from ancient mythology.In The Opposite of Cruelty Steven Leyvaampampamp8217s poems ask readers to see and remember beauty when the world seems to be in ruins to notice and praise ampampquotthe industrious cherry trees budding despite a summer full of bullets to come.ampampquot For Leyva beauty can be found in lineage and memory in the heroes of the comics and TV shows he watched as a boy in taking his children to the movies to see an AfroLatino Spiderman on the big screen and in doing so passing down that beauty those means of survival. In these sonnets and urban pastorals youampampamp8217ll find Selena UGK and Outkast Storm Static and Batman as well as Sisyphus Medusa Perseus and Grendel.