Benedict Hawkins’ Ode to John Tristram is a racy, tongue in cheek, celebration of the flesh. The poems are lurid and irreverent, written with a riveting eroticism. Hawkins takes the reader to a world where ‘beautiful boys melt in the rain’ and ‘Michelle Obama’s coming / lengthily in /terrific scarlet’. Ode to John Tristram is sexy, vivid and exciting.