Excerpt from the Foreword by Joseph Kerschbaum:

You are about to enter a menagerie of poems that will surprise, entertain, sadden, enlighten and entreat you to see the world in a different light. Throughout this anthology are haunted, cerebral pieces that linger with the reader long after the poem has ended. These poems include "October" by James Metelak; "Red Embers" by Melissa Stodgell: "Night Dances" by Lisa Horowski; "The Dead of Night" by Armando Torres; and Matthew Hoffman paints this striking, chilling picture of a cadaver's fingers in "Red Nail Polish":

    hands
    which had wrapped and opened Christmas presents,
    planted seeds of flowers in the garden
    and seeds of passion with her husband,
    calmed the fears of frightened sons and daughters,
    and gently stroked the forehead of her dying mother.

In Spencer Schenk-Wasson's "Where the Sky Ends" the speaker states: "The sky ends at a place that is so magnificent/It just might be your imagination." This poem explores the edges of the sky and the natural world itself. The natural world binds many of these poems together, such as: "Farewell to Sunflowers" by Anna Yin; "A Falcon Named 'Arrow'" by Ricky England; "Rebirth" by Michael J. Mason; "Nocturne" by Carlos Mojica; and "Good Tree" by Raine Bradford.

As expected, many poets write on the subject of love. The poems here address this "big" subject from surprising and varied angles. There are those poets who believe in love, like Travis Wilson ("Breathe") and Andrew Horace Glenn ("Sonnet For My Love"). There are poets who have been wronged by love, such as the speaker in Katie Schiffmann's "Broken Love Letter"; and then there is Tara Moore who simply turns away from the subject, and a possible lover, as her poem ends:

    Experience has taught me better and I see in your eyes a mere smirk,
    So I'll turn and walk away, while your eyes fall to the length of my skirt.

Another "big" topic tackled in this anthology is food. Jaime Danielle Caylor discusses threats contained within dessert (metaphorical, of course) and Sandra Bestlend writes a heart-felt "Ode to Chocolate" and it spins out of control in a decadent and madcap fashion:

    Romance and turpitude. Passion and depravity. Love
    And idolatry. Virtue and vice. Sin and more sin. Sin in a box.
    Sin a bite. I want to wear it. Look how I take truffles
    And twist them into my hair. I wear creme de boulee'
    Like a crown. I attach bonbons to my body like jewels.