Summary

"Torso of Air" begins, "Suppose you'd change your life," and then wonders what it would be like if the body is "more than/ a portion of night" (55). The speaker imagines finding his shadow replaced by a black wolf, and carving a hole in the wall through which he can see happiness, which is an eye waiting on the other side of the wall.

"Prayer for the Newly Damned" is a direct address to god, written almost in the form of a prayer. The speaker asks for forgiveness after having seen a man holding a shank to another man's throat, and for loving the way the man's eyes begged to keep living. Then the speaker begins again, and presents the image of a boy kneeling in a house with a knife touching the inside of his throat, which also has god's finger inside. He...