Marco's new book, Routine Maintenance, offers a clutch of spare lyrics and object poems rooted in the everyday. Whether they are drawing portraits (a cobbler, coach, superfan), probing social phenomena (soccer tryout, cell phone ringing in a basilica, tossing leaves at the eco station), or describing the unusual lives of commonplace objects (birthday balloon, faulty porch light, parking stall puddle), Melfi’s poems are propelled by incisive observation, muscular rhythm, and a terse entwining of images and ideas.