Summary

In “The Bull,” when the speaker saw a bull “in the backyard,” he “had no choice” but to go outside and approach him (1). The speaker asked the bull what he wanted. The speaker was a boy, and thus “a murderer” of his childhood (1). The speaker “didn’t / want him . . . to / be beautiful,” but he was (1). When he touched the bull, he found an entrance “the shape of / an animal” (1).

In Part I, “Snow Theory,” the speaker says it “is the best day ever” because he has not killed anything in years (5). When he dog-ears the page of his book, he is marking “the good part” to return to (5). He thinks about what he has lost and lies on top of his mother’s outline. It is as if they are making an angel together (5).

In “Dear Peter,” at the clinic...