Contents
Distraction Therapy
i.
The Perimeter Melody
For Good
During the Retirement Semester
The Earth, We're Told, Is Humming
The Malignancy of Stars
The Fury that Follows Small Disappointments
The Fear Warehouse
Shadowing the Gravedigger
Assessing the Dead
Science
The Shelter Revival
The Infinity Room
The Startling Language of Shriveling Leaves
Preserving Cursive
The Lost Continents
The Secret City
ii.
The Absolute
After the Bomb Drill, Miss Hartung Teaches Weather
The Nuclear Age
Upon the Tongue
While I Am Standing
The Light
The Rain aft er Sunrise
The Secret Voice
A Blanket Was over Her Body
Merging, Slowing, the Second Sun
Worship
The Sum Total
The Lengthening Radius for Hate: A Sequence
iii.
The Chernobyl Swallows
Turning Sixty-Five: How to Rid Your House of Ghosts
Visiting the Living Writers Class
The Hands
Dreamtime
Elegy
Anniversary
Acknowledgments