THEM?a collection penned pre-Iraq War II misadventure and 2004 presidential-election downer?finds Shapli far more interested in what's happening on the ground he treads everyday, in the lives of people he knows and loves, in the weather (see the poised, pouncing personification on display in ?Short Storm, ? as perfectly formed a piece as any he's composed). Some elements of the poet's idiosyncratic song remain the same?the topsy-turvy-tipsy approach, the on-the-fly linguistic coinage, the rhythmic enjambment driving home points that don?t quite gel right away?but here the concerns are decidedly more everyday and at times essay-like, with stray thoughts or conversational shrapnel giving way to inspired digression that spins out like a disoriented running back with something to prove, breathlessly deep and desperate fast, in directions unexpected. Wherever Shapli's intellectually-bruising musings finally deposit you, you?ll be glad you came along for the ride.