The beautiful and naive Clover Collette has been in the clutches of her overbearing mother for twenty-four years, but when Francis Darling unintentionally penetrates her defenses, the two suddenly and secretly fall in love. Within hours they're engaged and on the run. Madly in love, they drift through the heartland of America confronted by bank robbers, maniacal doctors, a Wall Street tycoon, an absentminded poet, and a blind artist - each one troubled by a heart wrenching tale of love.

The American Idlers is a collection of 67 poems that explore the fragile and fleeting moments of two young lovers as their relationship and intimacy gets punctuated by political tension, disillusionment, and the invisible hand of freedom. As the two lovers idle, they glimpse an America full of zealots, soldiers, sluts, salesmen, suicide, and self-determination. In their chaotic and multi-voiced vision of freedom, the two lovers discover the present tense pregnant with possibilities and, in that brief moment, they see the world for what it is: infinite.