Fatal: Poems

Fatal reflects on the “small and common” events that shock and wound us, contemplating how we can bear human care, knowing the risks. In Fatal, her most personal collection yet, Kimberly Johnson reflects on ways in which we are imperiled, this life dealing out even in its “small and common” events so many shocks and wounds that we are marked by our having lived it. These poems explore our enduring commitment to care for our small, costly holdings―all those vital, fatal loves that make us vulnerable―and contemplates the question of how we can bear the caring, knowing the risk.