Hereâs why you should care that Kathleen Flenniken is Washington Stateâs newest poet laureate: Sheâs an actually good poet. Her latest book, Plume, is a collection of poems that build into a narrative about the Hanford nuclear site, and itâs a bleak, personal account of a local disaster thatâs unfolding in slow motion. Flenniken could be talking about radioactive waste when she warns of âour mistakes/which are brutish/which will linger ten thousand years/which may end us altogether,â or she could be talking about heartbreak. But probably sheâs talking about both. (Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, www.elliottbaybook.com, 7 pm, free)