First published 2025
The narrator moves through days marked by small victories and quiet defeats. Their aging body carries memories of childhood and dreams of different beginnings. They write letters in verse to people who have died, creating a practice they call "Miss You" poems. The body they inhabit feels both protective and foreign. Some days bring thoughts of ending everything. Other days feel extraordinary simply because they choose to continue living. The narrator questions why survival lacks a proper name, why the act of persisting goes unrecognized. They listen to cisterns that seem to sing, finding music in both sound and silence. The landscape around them shifts as their own form changes. They examine their desire to shield the body they were given while longing for the one they might have had instead. Through these meditations, the narrator builds rituals that can contain both suffering and joy. They name their fears directly and write to absent loved ones. The collection becomes their method for creating meaning from an existence that feels both limited and endless.
Genres: literary-fiction, collections, contemporary, poetry, memoir
Vibes: intimate, introspective, lyrical, meditative, melancholic, thought-provoking
Tropes: epistolary-elements, found-family, stream-of-consciousness, unreliable-narrator
Period: 21st-century
128 pages · Hardcover · Copper Canyon Press
Content warnings: death, mental-illness, suicidal-ideation