Disjecta Membra is the second collection of poetry from Audrey Lee. The poems in Disjecta Membra focus heavily on location: moving in and out of Lee’s home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the lived experiences within the confines of institutions in and around the city: academic, medical, societal. Lee’s sharp poetic and artistic sensibilities blend with subject matter including recovering from mental illness, unrequited love, and meditations on “being a writer” — whatever that means.

Disjecta Membra is assembled from poetry written by Lee over the past two years. As Lee’s first chapbook, Probably, Angels (Maverick Duck Press, 2020) interrogated the coming-of-age experience of girlhood, Disjecta Membra says “now what?” in response to the end of adolescence marked by trauma. Disjecta Membra is Lee’s slice-of-life diary of relapse and recovery, infatuation and lovelessness, and continued escape from and subsequent return to home in Philadelphia. What ties the poems in Disjecta Membra together is their constant questioning of what it means to be a writer, and subsequently, an artist.

Probably, Angels, in short, is about girls and love: being a girl, loving girls, loving as a girl, being a girl in love. In long: it tackles concepts such as girlhood and the complexities of aging, identifying sexuality (or a lack thereof identification), friendship and its pitfalls, addiction, and how being a girl intertwines with mental health. Moreso, it discusses love and relationships between girls, boys, and the reader.