"When out-of-town childrenask my gender, I tell themI’m a witch."Charlie Bondhus’s latest poetry collection, 'Divining Bones,' is a shape-shifting kaleidoscope: Varieties of poetic styles. A body that occupies spaces between and among genders. Filling voids with sex and food and fantasies. Paganism in all its contradictions. And all the while, Baba Yaga looms."There is no other wayto say this: I was meant to be a wiseand powerful Russian witchrather than an unimpressive man…"Bondhus’s command of folklore, mythology, and the art and craft of poetry is extraordinary. He has fine-honed his craft from first ventures as a high school student and slam poet, unafraid to explore taboo subjects, always original in his choice of language and subject matter. His previous books were critically acclaimed and quite wonderful. He set himself a high bar – and proceeded to soar over it with 'Divining Bones.'"Guilt keeps us busy; violence makes us creative."Diving Bones is a testament to where one can go if only they are brave enough to plumb the crevasses of their own experience and the darkest parts of their mind and soul – and having painfully extracted juicy morsels, clever enough to shroud the most chilling in trappings of fairy tale worlds."This is the Book of Baba Yaga" Bondhus tells us, and "This is not the Book of Baba Yaga." Baba Yaga, sometimes called Boney Leg, or Iron Tooth – Wild Woman, Crone Goddess, Baby-eating Witch, daughter of Bone Woman and daughter of the Serpent Who Guards the Well of the Waters of Life and Death – Baba Yaga would read 'Divining Bones' and be proud. Or possibly she might take Charlie into her mortar, flying and swirling through the night skies as she makes passionate love to whoever he happens to be that night.