The poems in Oksana Maksymchuk's new collection explore how different forms of desire are thwarted by proximity to violence and catastrophe, and how they are intensified and enhanced by liminality and mortality. Can love reclaim the territory consumed by war? What does it mean to share in the suffering of others? Are playfulness, sensuality, and pursuit of beauty a cure for numbness, or merely a temporary escape? The collection draws on the genres of reportage, travelogue, family history, and philosophical meditation to make sense of war's ecstatic, frenzied humanity, the sense of purpose it generates, and the bonds it forges between citizens, family members, and lovers.