In this poignant set of 53 poems, the author tells the story of abuse suffered by his mother as he was able to piece the story together from her confessions and from family gossip. There are no records to affirm these stories, and no eyewitnesses to interview at this point; the stories have been imprinted in the author's mind and that will have to suffice as he travels with these poems from her childhood, through her adolescence, to her marriage, deterioration and death. The stories could as well be told about tens of millions of children and as many families; abuse is, after all, a family affair and worldwide epidemic. There is nothing so sad as watching that bright light behind the eyes of an abused child dim and burn out.