A brave exploration of grief, the poems presented in this collection are a testament to maternal bond and the perseverance of lineage. Sharp and vengeful, tender and healing, this is a daughter’s love letter to her mother spread across the universe. We all feel it. We all lift this love up with both hands because although death is at times a miscalculation, love is not and even when a body outgrows its skin, its spirit will never be forgotten—instead it will be rebirthed in the form of a long-awaited lover’s hand and a sisterhood treasured in the light and the dark. This goes to show that when our mothers leave us, reluctantly and all too soon, they leave behind a final gift: a surge of strength, a way to go on living. 

--Crystal Valentine, author of Not Everything is a Eulogy

 A haunting echo of longing, anguish, and reconciliation—this deeply vulnerable collection is one wherein the reader is seated squarely next to Young, moving along the radical axis of space where their mother’s life overlaps their own. A duality emerges as the poet assumes a voice for two mouths, confessing the intimations of tragedies gone long unspoken. These poems teach us to revel in the assurance of a rising sun, to meet even the ugliest of truths with mercy, and to embrace the impermanence of flesh. Through this amalgamation of both heart and shadow work, we move through moments of profound despair, and also, a slow emergence of gratitude for the opportunity to love and be loved, however briefly. 

--Hala Alyan, author of Salt Houses and The Arsonists’ City