thread me an exit: poems

back / of the body jaw to ankle still twisted floss. / have you had some extra stress this year? / do a quick inventory. as of this morning / all three kids alive

These poems ache — with the desperate love of a mother, yearning, grief, and the surprise of growing older in the liminal space between elder parents and long-limbed children. Vardaman's use of language is assured and muscular. In one poem, she may warm the reader up with long lines that metamorphize from playful litany to slicing ...