allostatic load
allostatic load navigates the racialized interplay of chronic wear and tear during tumultuous years marked by global racial tensions, an ongoing pandemic, the commodification of care, and the burden of systemic injustice. Moving between diaristic intimacy and the remove of news reportage, Désil’s second poetry collection invites readers to hold the vulnerability and resilience required to navigate deep healing in a world that does not wish you well, in a world that is inflamed and consequently inflames us, in a world where true restoration and health must co-occur with the planet and with each other.
Talonbooks, 2025
What People Are Saying
“Junie Désil does the hard work of voicing, with poignant clarity, the physical and emotional pains that are often carried in silence: allostatic load articulates daily confrontations with anti-Black racism, ableism, and misogyny. Yet it deftly and powerfully asserts Désil’s inherent dignity and the sanctity of Black life. Her words render a poetics of disability that acknowledges pain and duress while insisting upon life's natural magic and beauty.”
— Brandon Wint, Author of Divine Animal
“Profoundly emotional; masterfully composed. Such raw honesty that exposes the deeply rooted systemic sickness plaguing Canada’s colonial practice.”
— Joseph Kakwinokanasum, Author of My Indian Summer