From the author of Sad Little Breathing Machine, Matthea Harvey's Modern Life introduces a more serious voice, one troubled by fear and love and what is to come. In the central sequences, "The Future of Terror" and "The Terror of the Future," Harvey imagines a political and global conflict that seems frighteningly familiar. Another sequence describes the life and times of Robo-Boy, who comes to adolescence and struggles with his dual personality—part boy, part machine. Throughout is Harvey's signature wit and concision, in lyrics and prose poems about the double-natured side of objects and humanity, of what we see and what we know.