Play our James Joyce-themed crossword and check your answers if you get stuck!

dad 

teach me how to get that bald shiny

just like you. and there we’ll be 

two scalps approaching bald 

You can only suffocate so many embryos with your own blood vessels before you start to believe in your bones that this is what you’re meant to do, what you deserve.

My wild grief didn’t know where to start or end.

Sometimes, I dig my hands

through the earth just to get

my fingers dirty.

In an uncategorizable dream, she was in a doctor’s office. The doctor had dyed black hair and didn’t use gloves for the pelvic examination. The room was full of rotting food. Then she was home and opening an envelope, and inside the envelope was a check for $100,000. 

The traffic lights, the coffee perfectly hot, the engine of my car gliding along in the morning, 

the buttons holding my blouse together, the soles of my shoes solid.

Look how the sidewalk rises to meet your feet

with the gentleness of mothers. The splendor

of spring trees in fuchsia bloom is yours alone.

You turn to see if he’s watching, if he’s afraid that you’ll leave, but can’t tell either way. Your jeans held your ass differently on hormones. You wonder if he can tell the difference.

Steinke artfully details how we lose our vitality, our stamina and our abilities, bit by bit, organ by joint. After the book’s tour through disease and misfortune, I’d come to feel lucky for my health.