In an effort to understand how people grow from the soil of their family's past-and, more specifically, how the poet came to be who she is as both a person and an artist-Blowdown takes on the work of archaeology. Historical evidence, much of it uncovered during the writing process, reveals so little of the truth; what emerges instead is fully fragmented, like pieces of bone unearthed after centuries. These poems attempt to assemble those fragments into story, building a narrative where none has been preserved.