For as much as we mourn after a loss, Morgan (a Lyric) is an elegy for a lover in the extended and slow acts of tenderness, pain, and joy that leads up to the eventual loss, specifically of the late poet Morgan Lucas Schuldt. Boyer Rickel has written one long breath, an inhale and exhale as an offering to his lover whose lungs were failing. In a collage of flaws, gaps, and moments of heightened awareness, time is both suspended, yet speeding forward at an ever ravaging pace. Nothing can prepare us for our lover’s departure, witnessing their decline, the effervescence of each moment is exploded to sublime proportions. And yet the softness of touch, “inhaling as I kiss his neck,” the tendrils of care, “why do you do this…why do you take care of me,” is a testament to the brief yet bright angles of love that make a simple moment replete with endless joy. I treasure this book. I, too, mourn for Morgan though I never knew him. It makes me hold those near me closer.