Like the “page turned down to make another / page,” Dog Ear explores the marks we leave on a world whose social, political and personal markers are constantly shifting. In his fourth book of poems—and most focused work to date—Jim Johnstone establishes himself as an exquisite observer of decay, both physical and spiritual. This is a universe where man resembles “the final / generation of a species branching / towards an in-between.” Johnstone’s poetry blurs past and present, private and public in a kinetic style marked by weird semi-narratives, defamiliarizing close-ups and raw self-examinations.