Pedro Neves Marques's first poetry collection includes two sets of poems
written between 2017 and 2019. From precise geometries to tragicomic
gestures and long free verse confessions, Neves Marques’s poetry moves
with great honesty between deep social analyses to the tactile quality
of remembrance. Other Viral Poems draws an analogy between the spread of the Zika epidemic in Brazil, the genetic modification of its carrier
mosquito, and the rise of fascism to mount a critique of both gender
biases in science and anti-queer populisms. In orderly fashion, the
poems coopt a militaristic and technical language to instead create
spaces of intimacy where gender, love, trust, and unequal experiences
are tested. Sex as Care takes on a more loose and diaristic tone,
speaking in the first person to the landscapes, the friendships, and the
romantic love that at times struggles to break through the gaps of Other
Viral Poems. Whether in a long and devoted poem tying friendship and
historical legacies across the Atlantic such as in “Brazil” or in the
condensed and timed recollections of “Thirteen Days in Lisbon,” these
poems acknowledge the reality of both care and violence in intimacy.