In raw, lyrical poems, Host explores parasitic relationships--between men and women, sons and mothers, and humans and the earth--and considers their consequences. How much control do we have over our lives? To what extent are we being controlled? And how much does it matter in the end? Revealing the unvarnished pain of mistreatment--whether inflicted maliciously or accidentally--Lisa Fay Coutley examines legacies of abuse in poems that explore how trauma parasitizes bodies, infecting the text, repeating in language and image the injuries the body has been subjected to. - back cover