I could wax poetic about why I enjoyed this book, but here's all you need to know: When I realized I had left my iPad at home, I forced my 40+-year-old eyes to read the ARC from my iPhone.

Best Evidence: Poems by Mark S. Osaki is a collection of poetry about being Asian in America. Osaki was born in Sacramento, California. He attended the University of California, Berkeley as an Alumni Scholar and went on to do graduate work in International Relations and Security Studies.

The first section, Walking Back the Cat, contains several poems that reflect back on youth. The poem "Fish Heads" caught my attention mainly from the Saturday Night Live skit decades ago. Although not the poets intent it does seem to reflect the universal opinion of fish heads. This quickly changes to a tour of a Chinese labor camp and then the deeper "Salt". The second section, Dying Arts, reflects on the violence in the world caused by national conflicts. "Turista" reflects on war for war's sake, just a change of sides, much Syria today and the title is a good play on words. "Preserve," tells of the children and their new playground that is adopted without a second thought. This is followed by "Family Reunion" the experience of an Asian-American infantryman serving in the Vietnam War.

The third section "Trade Craft" is a mix of poems and themes. The final section is the title section, Best Evidence. These last two sections do not seem to have the coherence of the previous two. The poetry is well written but the sections do not seem to be hard boundaries confining the writing. A well done but a short collection of poems seen from an Asian perspective of being an American. An interesting and enlightening collection.