Love

Throughout the text, Smith thematically examines love. In “I’m All Yours”, she utilizes a moment with her son to examine how she gives and receives love. After her children’s father moved away, Rhett was grumpy and inconsolable. The author told him. “’I’m all yours,’ meaning in that moment [they] could do whatever he wanted to do—a board game, a book, modeling clay, charades, Legos, cards, and art project—but also beyond that, [she is] right here, always no matter what” (212). Later, Rhett said, “I’m all yours, too” (212). In this moment, Smith recognizes that her life is filled with love despite losing her primary romantic relationship. She encourages her reader to inspect how they define love and question if a narrow definition of the emotion limits them from giving and receiving love in their immediate present.

In “A Pantoum, A Villanelle, A Ghazal”, Smith...