Oxygen for Two is the last of Paola Corso's Pittsburgh air trilogy following Once I was Told the Air Was Not for Breathing and The Laundress Catches Her Breath. It's set in the sooty heyday of the poet's youth and her father sharing his every breath with the cancer in his lungs. As the city becomes greener, public steps-built for steel workers to commute to the mills-are now climbed for exercise and lower carbon footprints. Corso explores how a patriarch's death impels family and love relationships to evolve along with their city from a harmful influence to a spirit of life-giving.
