Great Regulars: Context is everything: by now we've guessed

that she has been killed by a rejected lover, and here he is, cheering the new grad like everyone else, though murder is in his smile, and the hand that raises a toast will take a life.

Not every poem is as riveting as this. Some are merely documentary; a certain amount of fact is necessary to push the story forward. In fact, there is little here that stands alone. When I put the book down and walked away, as I had to do more than once, I found myself thinking not of individual poems, as is usually the case, but of an overall effect, a sense of horror mixed with anger and disbelief.

from David Kirby: The New York Times: My Daughter's Murder

~~~~~~~~~~~