This volume collects poems from three of Carole Satyamurti's books of poetry: her first, Broken Moon (1987), which spoke about the small, important victories of people attempting to deal with loss or deficiency in their lives; Changing the Subject (1990), in which she dealt, in the title sequence, with the subject of cancer; and Striking Distance (1994), which included a bitter sequence about the sinking of the ferry, The Herald of Free Enterprise.