ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Heartfelt thanks to Rick Barot and Carolyn Kuebler for their substantial commitment to this poem, the following sections of which appeared in New England Review: The third time my mother fell; Outside the window the trees; In the hills above Rincon; And when there was nothing left; We are lying in the big bed; In animal darkness, before; I bring breakfast, balancing the tray; Turns out Leo is one lying; This year I have disappeared; The hornets swarm in the diesel-filled air.; How will you spend your courage,; From my mother’s cabin I hear them—; Mexico is a snake eating; When this is all over; My mother’s curled up on the big bed—; In my dream my mother comes with me.; Is that MY black dog—; Just after seven we turned her; The life falls shut,; The day after my mother died; And the bit about the answer.

Immense gratitude to the Lannan Foundation for a residency during which much of this book took shape, and The MacDowell Colony for a residency during which it found its final form. To everybody at AJB, especially Carey Salerno, Alyssa Neptune, Mary Austin Speaker, and Julia Bouwsma, my great appreciation for your gracious guidance. To Gale Mead, my thanks for your sharp eyes. Tess, Kathleen, Cort, Lisa, Alan, Jeanne, Jan, Betsey, Madeleine, Andrea, Dennis, Terry, and the Horsewomen: thank you, my dear friends, for your advice and encouragement. To Ramon, Silvia, and Parry, my love.