Michael Montlack’s poetry collection Daddy (NYQ Books, September 7, 2020, 88 pages) is a sweeping vista of allegories and witticisms, and a benevolent contemplation on being a son, a brother, a poet, and a gay man in America. The book cover is Christopher Shields’ pencil drawing of a man’s muscular arm sporting a tattoo of a seahorse; arresting and intriguing, it’s a warning of the nuanced play on femininity and masculinity that is to come. Appropriately enough, the book opens with a poem, “How to Mother Like a Man,” that talks about a male seahorse giving birth to help the female exhausted from egg production. This sets the tone for the entire collection—a compassionate memoir that transcends defined gender roles and is a celebration of grace, forgiveness, acceptance, and family. Daddy is divided into three sprawling sections: “Daddy,” “Mother,” and “Father.” There is a logic behind this structure, as the order of poems is designed to deliver an emotional punch. Michael Montlack, editor of the critically-acclaimed Lambda Finalist anthology My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them, has a long-standing presence in the LGBTQ community and is a significant voice in gay literature. In the “Daddy” section, continue...