In this collection, Anna Jackson's poems deal thoughtfully and elegantly with motherhood, family, and the environment. Her ideas often assume unexpected forms, appearing as hens, vending machines, or grass within her poetry. Also addressed in these poems is the fate of today's animals in their restricted habitats, which is dealt with in poems such as "Dodo," "Butterflies," and "The Pastoral Elephant."
"Anna Jackson writes risky poems. . . joyous and celebratory, too, especially in the several that focus on her family. But none sags and, in the title sequence, there is macabre steel beneath the narrator's innocence."
