Beaumont's third book of poetry moves through several realms of experience—even the afterlife—with sly artistry. The first several poems breathe new life into everyday objects—a dressing table, discarded orange peels, a cicada's wings, and buttons are rendered with the attention of a miniaturist. From "In Pursuit of the Original Trinket":

Does any thing fit?
Appearing as from a magician's trick cabinet—

          a triad of pink piglets
          a trivet too dinky to be of use
          triplet kittens linked by a miniscule chain

          a three-car train to ring the rink of the rail
              set
          third-rate stones that blink from an anklet

The emotional landscapes of domesticity move fluidly from a child's imagination to an adult's perspective, but Beaumont continues to takes inventory of a life in the fashion of a devoted collector. In "When I Am in the Kitchen," Beaumont writes "Oh the past is too much with me in the kitchen, / where I open the vintage metal recipe box, / robin's egg blue in its interior, to uncover / the card for Waffles, writ in my father's hand / reaching out from the grave to guide me. ..." Reflective poems are offset with wordplay riffs, a séance transcript, and even a Magic 8 Ball conversation channeling Sylvia Plath. As Rigoberto González notes, "[Beaumont's poetry] is both art and performance, 'no circumstance is ordinary.'"

This book review originally appeared in American Poets.