“I am the curtain of humidity before rain/ and the silvered floodwaters/ that comb through the furrows/ of fresh-tilled fields./ I am a calm so still/ the crepe myrtle trembles.”

The collection takes us along Nezhukumatathil’s childhood and adolescent moves: through a mental institution in rural Kansas to the deserts and mountains of Arizona and then the cold of upstate New York, until she finally finds her place in swampy Mississippi. With each new place Nezhukumatathil finds herself in, we learn about the local flora and fauna that have helped her find tools for survival in a world that doesn’t seem to want her.

Rural communities rely on farms to provide fresh produce and groceries to them, but with economic turmoil and an emphasis on “cheaper” options through grocery chains, farms can be forgotten or “washed away” by promises of lower prices and more product. But farms are more crucial than ever, some attributing their efforts to fighting climate change while taking care of their community. I intentionally manipulated the photo to demonstrate polluted water swirling over the farm to show the connection between the death of farms and the decay of our world.

“My fiction helped me find an avenue into poetry, largely because I’m a narrative poet. I really only venture away from that when a piece has no narrative. My poetry influences my fiction, too, though. It taught me the importance of not wasting words.”