Summary

The title of the poem “Photograph: Ice Storm, 1971” refers to a photograph described briefly in the piece of the speaker’s front yard covered in ice during a storm. Meanwhile, most of the poem is dedicated to describing the aspects of the storm not encapsulated by the photograph, such as the fact that it kept them quarantined to their house for days on end with no power while food rotted in the fridge, or the implication that her stepfather beat her mother while they were trapped in such close quarters.

The next poem in the collection, “What Is Evidence,” further explores the speaker’s mother’s abuse. The speaker lists several things related to her mother’s abuse that she claims do not count as evidence, such as “the fleeting bruises,” “the quiver/in the voice she’d steady,” or even “the official...