Unaccountable Weather

A collection that begins with this line..."Once we even used bacon grease-" is one that gets your attention quickly. Readers realize soon that this collection tells the story of the diagnosis, treatment, and recovery from breast cancer. The shock of diagnosis gives way to a poet's wondering why and how and when, and then poet Kirkpatrick takes her readers through the entire course. There is the clinical reality that begins with denial and gives way to words a woman "never imagined you'd ever need to hear: it's time to save your life."Along the way in this lyrical path, there is the kindness of strangers, like the woman whose son is in chemo who befriends the narrator, and the lover who gently touches her scars as an act of foreplay. Ms. Kirkpatrick has also found humor in the struggle in the stories of others, like Glenda who works topless and breastless in her garden even when the neighbors call the cops on her and Donna who gets so excited flat-foot dancing that she takes out her Dolly Parton prostheses and flings them at her surprised partner. Through the course of this collection Ms. Kirkpatrick finds success and hope-small and large-and recovery. Within Unaccountable Weather, the poet's stance and tone remain straight ahead, objective. There is no sentimentalism in this dance between life and death.