Apple Mind

What happens when communication collapses? Apple Mind follows Katie Richards' quest to connect with her spouse and autistic son when speech fails. The couple struggles to learn LAMP Words for Life, an AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) method, to teach their non-speaking son to communicate. In balancing the intense needs of their son while also attending to their younger daughter, the couple's marriage strains to a breaking point. Amid fights and communication breakdowns, the speaker-poet retreats to her garden-a place of respite, risk, failure, anger, and relief. The garden takes on its own life, reflecting and refracting the family's struggles. Through the garden, Richards finds a way to reconnect with her spouse and despite the stress, the couple rediscovers a tenuous connection-until their daughter suddenly goes silent.

In this striking debut collection, Katie Richards' poems offer a raw, unflinchingly honest lyrical experience that unabashedly interrogates the emotional depths of a struggling marriage and difficult parenting experiences while simultaneously extolling the natural beauty in the world around the speaker.