In Failure and I Bury the Body , selected by D. Nurkse for the National Poetry Series, Sasha West calls upon the tradition of medieval allegory to speak to modern anxieties. Haunted by a melting Antarctica and the tragedies of the twentieth cen­tury, the narrator and the character of Failure take a road trip through the Southwestern desert. Before long, the Corpse, an inescapable passenger, joins them. As the narrator and Failure attempt to rid themselves of his body, the linked poems investigate desire, extinction, and the made world.