Summary

Rupi Kaur’s collection of confessional poetry begins with an untitled poem reading “on the last day of love / my heart cracked inside my body” (13). Underneath the poem is a hand-drawn illustration of a decaying leaf. Kaur goes on to reveal her former lover has left her, and the bouquet of flowers he once gave her is now “wilting,” so she “pop[s]” the flowers’ “heads off / and [eats] them” (15). Kaur says that she “wanted [him] still,” but “deserved someone / who was willing to stay” (17). As the poems progress, Kaur continues an ongoing dialogue with herself, saying “I am okay,” then responding with “no” (18), saying “I can’t move on,” then responding with “I will” (18), until Kaur says her “mind exhausts itself into a silence” (18).

Kaur’s poems become increasingly personal, continuing to deal with the aftermath of her breakup. She reveals that “in...