FEAR OF DOGS & OTHER ANIMALS is a collection for the thirteenth hour, when the day or journey is seemingly half-over and a much needed respite is eminent but is never fully actualized. Shauna M. Morgan, in her debut collection, offers 13 heartrending poems that take us down familiar roads at a time when headlines about advances in race relations contradict the realities of the black experience. These poems should not have been necessary but they are, being both timely and timeless in the way they boldly explore the forgotten spaces some are reluctant to tread.