Point of View

The majority of the collection is written in the first person singular point of view. One can assume that the poems feature the same speaker throughout the book based on many of the common characteristics that the speakers share. For example, the fact that the speaker is a woman plays a fundamental role in the meaning and narrative essentially every piece. Furthermore, there are certain biographical details that align the speakers with the author of the book, Olivia Gatwood, such as the fact that she was born in Albuquerque and moved to Trinidad for several years of her life. The speaker’s identity as an American woman contextualizes her point of view in a way that clarifies the root of the conflicts in many of the poems. For example, the fact that the poems are told from the point of view of a woman relates...