Nestled against the backdrop of Seattles flora fauna and cityscape Luther Hughes debut poetry collection wrestles with the interior and exterior symbiosis of a gay Black man finding refuge from the threat of depression and death through love and desire.Hughes draws readers into a Seattle that is heavily entrenched in violent antiBlackness and full of vulnerable and personal encounters from both the speakers past and present. With reverent and careful imagery Hughes fashions deeply saturated tender vignettes that reckon relationships between family and friends lovers nature and the policestate.A Shiver in the Leaves is stunningly cinematic in its layered portrayal of the neverending dualities of a queer Black poetampampamp8217s life in the city. Hughess interrogation of selfhood renders a sharply intimate and viscerally powerful reimagining of what it means to be alive in a body and what it can mean to live.