contents

Death and the People

To Make Us Whole

The Dictator is Drinking Alone

The Chemistry of Objects

Study for the New Fictional Science

The Monstrous Sadness of Mythical Creatures

The World After This One

The Poet in Convalescence

The Effect of All that Light Upon You

May We Shed These Human Bodies

When the Weather Changes You

Gone and Gone Already

A History of Heart Disease

All the Imaginary People are Better at Life

The City Outside of Itself

The Ghosts Eat More Air

When Other People’s Lives Fall into Your Lap

If You Don’t Believe, They Go Away

Feral Children

Never Never

Cocoon

You Will be the Living Equation

The Woman Across the Water

Vesuvias

As They Always Are

When Your Carcass Hits the Canvas

Be Like Us and We Will Like You Maybe

The Wives are Turning into Animals

The Only Story in the World

Most of Them Would Follow Wandering Fires

Acknowledgements