Summary

Section three begins with “Life on Mars,” a nine part poem that starts with the speaker describing a woman named Tina’s theory on dark matter as “the space between people/when what holds them together isn’t exactly love” (37). They relate this supposition to another woman, Anita, who feels it as “a tug toward the phone, though she knows/the ear at the other end isn’t there anymore” (37). The speaker later clarifies that Tina is not talking specifically about men and women, but families. The section ends with the question, “What lives beside us passing for air?” (37).

Part two of the poem tells the story of a father who kept his daughter locked in their basement for decades. Over time the father forced the daughter to have his children, who were also kept hidden in the basement. The speaker describes the...