None of us is "long for this world," the saying goes, so we may as well live with a due sense of wonder. In this collection of poems, to "long for this world" is to be open to the unexpected, like a turtle on a runway or angel on a beach at night. The three magi cross the desert, following a star, and one of them is a "fly queen" wearing pearls. A mother offers hard and daring advice, and a fancy neighbor keeps a pet raccoon. The speaker in these poems has enjoyed intimate desire as well as grief and loss, and when she witnesses a solar eclipse, filled with awe, comes to this conclusion: "we are full and hollow/and vacant at last, / just as we all suspected."
