[06/20/26] Ingram, RJ: Peacock Lane

Peacock Lane is a choose-your-own-adventure told through a deck of poems masquerading as tarot cards, each poem a door, a dare, a misdirection. Blurring the lines between pop culture criticism, fan fiction, & neighborhood gossip, it traces the slippery performances of the Dandy & the Trickster as they wander a street that glows too brightly & remembers too much. This is a book that fell asleep with the TV on & woke up mid-transformation: a Gemini-Cancer cusp of sentimentality & spectacle, tenderness & sabotage.

In this epic sequel to The Autobiography of Nancy Drew, RJ Ingram beckons us like a flashing neon light that’s eerily inviting. Set against the real & mythologized Peacock Lane of Portland—famous for its excessive Christmas lights—these poems unravel a persona who wants to become a labyrinth, who overcommits, overdecorates, & over feels. Moving through abandoned gas stations, prom committees, & long-distance phone calls that linger too long, the collection stages an investigation into identity as performance & survival as rehearsal.

"Confessions Of A Manic Pixie Replicant" RJ Ingram (back cover poem)

Here’s to tall girls laced in black leather boots / Eyeliner & jelly bracelets & parachute pants / Dripping with zippers & old aluminum can tabs / Strung on a guitar string & here’s to those who / Slink on catwalks above the high school auditorium / And recite soliloquies & patter songs to barflies sobering up with coffee / At Denny’s at three in the morning on a school night / Here’s to losing again at Magic The Gathering / And also losing the waitress’ phone number / She wrote on your mana with her big black sharpie / You might as well be your own Manic Pixie / Dream Girl diving into the cosmic deep end / After all when you’re the object of your own affection / It’s justified to fall for a bombshell fem-fatale.

Read the arranged Tarot Spreads | Turn to page 1 Pull a single card | Open the book at random