listen: here's a secret
the heart is at best an imperfect organ
at worst a traitor
it plots away right there in your chest
against your better interests
falls prey to the jinx of the bedeviller
and afterwards all one can do is pick up
the errant ventricular pieces that clatter to the floor.

from AORTIC CAPRICE

Between the covers of AORTIC CAPRICE Gail reveals the stories of a woman "of a certain age" wrestling with her wayward heart: the death of an adult child, the fading of her own youth, and her attraction to much younger men. The poetry sweeps from mountain wilderness to the intimate terrain of a lover's body in an avalanche of transgressive desire.

This poetry collection is adult in nature.