“Butt Stuff Flower Bush” by Sam Herschel Wein, published by Porkbelly Press 2023

Sam Herschel Wein’s newest chapbook Butt Stuff Flower Bush takes readers through moods of rejoicing queerness, vulnerability, and healing from trauma. This collection is a spread of sixteen poems wrapped in the beautifully hand-bound book by Porkbelly Press, which captures readers with snappy stanzas and scrumptious imagery.

Sam Herschel Wein is a Pushcart Prize winning poet and graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Tennessee. Butt Stuff Flower Bush is their third chapbook. He is also the cofounder and editor of Underblong.

I first found Wein’s work through their poem “Vegetable Condominiums” and his food imagery is one of the things I most associate with his writing. Wein’s way with foods is colorful and fun. Their innuendo is ripe and juicy, every line you can taste.

The last three poems, “The Interviewer Asks How Many Times I Cried”, “Butt Stuff Flower Bush”, and “Wearing a jockstrap to see RENT on the last night of my lover’s stay in Chicago” end the chapbook in a rush of emotion. They encapsulate the difficulties of finding “queer magic” but also express how healing pleasure and sex can be when you do find it. These poems are intimately personal while also speaking to shared queer experiences.

Wein’s voice shines in fun and flirty verses as well as more punchy angry lines. I love Wein’s arc of unapologetic desire throughout the book, “delight in me. make my armpit your forever/mustache scent” he writes in “I’m tired of the gays, bring me a Grade A Faggot”. As they reclaim their own wants after the pain of trauma, it feels like freedom.

Wein is uninterested in writing palatable queerness for the status quo. This book is raw, candid and wonderful. The juxtaposition of vulnerability with raucous and raunchy queer joy delights readers and urges you to devour the whole collection.

Note: Trigger warnings for Butt Stuff Flower Bush – sexual assault and death.

Image thanks to Porkbelly Press.

About the reviewer

Elinor Serumgard (they/them) is a non-binary writer from the Pacific Northwest. Their poetry has been published in minimag and Jeopardy Magazine. They also write book reviews for the International Examiner. They can often be found drinking coffee and playing with their chiweenie, Ollie.

About the author

Sam Herschel Wein (he/they) is a lollygagging plum of a poet who specializes in perpetual frolicking. They have an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Tennessee and were the recipient of a 2022 Pushcart Prize. Their third chapbook, Butt Stuff Flower Bush, is forthcoming from Porkbelly Press. Their second chapbook, GESUNDHEIT!, a collaboration with Chen Chen, is part of the 2019-2020 Glass Poetry Press series. He co-founded and edits Underblong. Recent poems can be found in American Poetry Review, The Cincinnati Review, and Shenandoah, among others. They can be found in the cheese aisle of most stores, in the middle of a hug, or editing poems at your local coffee shop.