This collection is arranged around various themes and instances of loss. In particular, these poems treat the dilemma of the vulnerability of both body and Being to violent forces. Whether the agent is a murderer who takes a human life, or capitalism, which takes life itself from life, the antagonist is confronted and considered with an eye to discovering action--within and outside of the poem--that contains the possibility of transformation. Under the duress of these violent forms, the speaker in these poems fights to discover what can and cannot be recovered.