This collection of poetry interrogates the impact of grief and partner violence on a family lineage, as well as the connections between sorrow and joy as they relate to poetry, women's writing, and the process of the “confessional.” Inextricably woven into these investigations of various types of grief is the question of what gendered and socioeconomic statuses we bring with us when we choose poetry as a method of recording the intimacies of a life.
This debut interlinked collection of stories delves into the primal nature of women's grief, offering insights into the profound experience of loss and the absurdity of seeking control in an unruly world. Seamlessly blending the speculative with stark reality, it presents a tender portrait of women striving to survive, love, and find meaning in the aftermath of loss. Through unconventional and unpredictably connected narratives, the author shatters the stereotype of the soft-spoken, sorrowful woman, queering the domestic space and honoring the feral instincts within. Each story features grieving women embracing their wild impulses: one becomes a "gazer" at a fraternity house, another immerses herself in otherworldly stained-glass art, a couple communicates only through their basement's black box, and a thruple grapples with a partner's sudden disappearance. These characters endure messy breaks, whisper secrets to ghosts entwined in their hair, eat raw meat to connect with their inner wolves, and concoct deadly MLM schemes along the Gulf Coast. Set against the backdrop of often-overlooked towns in the American South, the collection spotlights women living on the brink. Lyrical and surprisingly humorous, it reveals the sticky complications of existence in all its grotesquerie and glory.