This collection is familiar and immediately accessible, the poet's trenchant observations sitting like pearls upon the tongue - not precious, but flawed ones left for others to find.

A democratic attitude requires open eyes, a willingness to suffer discomfort for its own sake and the burr of memory kept sharp:

"... the woman with her purse clutched

to her breasts like a dead child, the boy, pimpled, morose, his head
shorn, a swastika carved in the stubble,
staring you down...

"You can feel it now: why people become Republicans: Get that dog
off the street. Remove that spit and graffiti. Arrest those people huddled
on the steps of the church." (Democracy)

"Go on, he beseeches, Get going, but the lone elk
stands her ground, their noses less than a yard apart.

One stubborn creature staring down another.
This is how I know the marriage will last." (The Crossing)

"... a mother
who's lost a child, a bad child,
a greedy child or maybe a grown boy
who's murdered and raped, a mother
can't help it, she loves that boy
anyway, and in spite of herself
, she misses him...

... and you know she's only
romanticizing, that she's conveniently
forgotten the bruises and the booze...
and you want... to slap her back to sanity...

... and then, you can't help it
either, you know love when you see it,
you can feel its lunar strength, its brutal pull." (Facts About the Moon)