2026 “Reader’s Favorite” Winner reviewed by Divine Zape

In “Welcome to My AlphaGal Flipbook”, David Plahm examines, in hopeful verse and in a memoirist style, what it means to survive a body turned against itself. The poetry collection follows events, mimicking the latest episode of Alpha-Gal Syndrome, a tick-borne allergy conveyed “in poetic survival form.” The collection opens with the attack itself in “She Visits … Again,” the disease that arrives like an uninvited guest. It is the ultimate infection as the speaker’s hands tingle. The struggle with the attack escalates to his feet, which become “blood sausages” and “swollen beyond recognition,” leaving him crumpled on the floor of the battlefield he calls life. The most haunting is the “Four Seconds of Heaven” in which he recalls experiencing the peace and stillness of death. It is a calm he prays will come back.

Colorfully illustrated and stunningly designed by Elena Welch, “Welcome to My AlphaGal Flipbook” captures a painful moment in the author’s life, a medical experience conveyed in poetry characterized by short lines and humor. The book refuses despair, especially in the second half, stitching survival into what David Plahm calls his quilt, a patchwork of living. His descriptions are infused with humor. In his agony, he professes his love for life, “Always in search of the nectar that brings love.” I was captivated by how the poet repurposes the vocabulary of illness for the beauty of music. There is a muse, an anchor in the background, whose whisper leads him “from maelstrom winds / to glass seas.” This book is short but delightful to read because of the ingenuity with which the author captures the episodes. It flourishes with  symbolism and imagery, and the design pairs musically with the sharp diction.