Child ward of the commonwealth

About this book

"We humans often lie about the nature of our childhoods because certain wounds can't be born enough to be fully expressed. In Child Ward of the Commonwealth, Eileen Cleary brilliantly captures the truthfulness of child consciousness within a world of trauma for her speaker. That Cleary's poems do this with such beauty, clarity, and formal acumen astonishes me. This is a devastating collection, one in which many readers will find the relief of seeing themselves." --Erin Belieu.