In The Bare Thing Len Lukowski delves into queer desire in an urgent, rough and surprisingly playful fashion. Lukowski, through a wickedly subversive sense of humor, satirizes the plot of Notting Hill, laments an unused dildo, and, in a lyrical flourish, compares his lovers to ‘the sky in a Van Gogh painting’. The poems celebrate illicit desire and the male body’s vulnerability; transitioning, taking risks and opening the window to an unseen world.