Figuring

The poems in Figuring probe the gulf between self and other as they explore themes of motherhood, landscape, domesticity, and childhood, and the violence— both intimate and global— that shadow all of these. A mother overhears her children playing “ Containment Drill” (the classroom procedure to prepare for a school shooting), a young girl believes she will grow wings when she enters puberty, young boys shoot each other on a neighborhood street in what appears at first to be a game of tag, a woman fears for her sanity while she does laundry, children mimic hurricane disaster relief operations on the playground, and bulletproof school supplies are advertised on the news. Interwoven series of self-portraits and reportage chronicle the moment of contact or collision between the individual and surrounding world, grappling with issues of implication and complicity.