Contents -- I. -- Family Portrait [When I say my mother] -- Wedding Dress -- Portrait of My Mother as the Republic of Texas -- The Egg -- Portrait of My Mother as Rosemary Woodhouse -- Song -- Touch -- A Fact Which Occurred in America -- Family Portrait [If I could turn the photograph] -- Portrait of My Mother as Self-Inflicting Philomena -- In Captivity -- Safety -- My Father's Triumph -- Parthenogenesis -- My Mother's Love -- Family Portrait [The woman has disrobed] -- Madame Lear -- Brief History of My Mother -- II. -- Pleasure -- Heritage -- We Fall in Love with Total Strangers -- In Praise of Lies -- Portrait of My Lover as "Man in a Polyester Suit (1980)" -- Portrait of My Mother as Lillian Virginia Mountweazel -- Four Letters from SPC Elycia Loveis Fine -- Portrait of My Mother as Victorine Meurent -- Aubade -- The End of Myth -- The Dumb Body -- You Send Me Roses -- My Father's Time -- We Exult in Your Pain -- The Enemy -- Naming the End -- Love the Shattered Thing -- Portrait of My Lover Singing in Traffic -- Notes.