Renowned poet Kwame Dawes presents his most personal and universal work in this collection of carefully arranged poems. Separated into four thematic sections, these poems reveal the author's family secrets with an overarching coherence and meaning, focusing primarily on the triangular relationship between himself, his father, and his younger brother. Establishing his family's mythology and the hopes that were invested in his brother, the verses also detail his brother's descent into madness and the resulting downfall that brought about his father's premature death, the poet's later-renewed relationship with his brother, and his attempts to bridge the gap between their disparate worlds--all with intensity, tautness, and eloquence.