Under the Circumstances by Susan Middleton

Under the Circumstances by Susan Middleton

Some drawers are meant to be locked. This one never was.

Inside these pages, Israa Hussein opens the drawer we all carry-the one filled with words we never said, heartbreaks we never explained, and moments that still echo long after they've passed.

With raw honesty and lyrical precision, This Drawer Doesn't Lock explores the quiet places where memory and emotion live: the space between silence and confession, solitude and belonging, loss and the hope that refuses to leave.

These poems are for anyone who has held too much inside, for too long. They are reminders that even the softest truths deserve the light, and that the things we think we've hidden have a way of finding their voice.

If you open this drawer, be ready.

What's inside might feel like yours, too.

Susan Middleton is a well-known photographer, author, and presenter who specializes on rare and endangered creatures, plants, places, and cultures. She was the chair of the Department of Photography at the California Academy of Sciences for thirteen years, and she is now a research associate there. Proof of Evolution (Abrams, 2009) is her most recent book. Archipelago, Remains of a Rainbow (National Geographic), Witness, and Here Today (Chronicle Books) are among the novels written in partnership with David Liittschwager. Her images have been included in the permanent collections of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Gallery of Art, and have been exhibited globally in fine art and natural history venues.

In 2009, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship. She currently resides in San Francisco.