Michael by Mariah Whelan is a pamphlet-length poem that takes the form of a play. Set in a ‘small town in northern England’ and written with attention to the splatter of syllabic sound and a chorus of voices that ‘move like water’, Whelan’s hybrid text recalls Ilya Kaminsky’s The Deaf Republic and Dylan Thomas’ celebrated Under Milk Wood. Musical and sometimes whimsical in the text’s wry regard for the eponymous protagonist, Michael is a pamphlet about ghosts, grief, and longing for connection in post-Brexit Britain.