The poems in A Spade, A Spade are mainly obsessed with the poet’s understanding and reconciliation with her family. The collection is in four parts, each of which investigates the speaker’s perspective as a daughter, sister, and granddaughter in a broken family. The poems are rooted heavily in memory, as the speaker recollects her time with her estranged father, and comes to term with her mother’s battle with lung cancer. A Spade, A Spade carries a dance motif throughout to explore the body as it grows and deteriorates.