Blending poetic memoir and revelation, the matchstick litanies opens on family violence and women’s work—both often silenced. These richly detailed poems, however, reclaim the voice of a speaker who excavates family stories woven with hard truths, spanning generations and who comes to see clearly their own "inheritance by what was visible: translucent scorpions braving the hot sidewalks, / winged ants following one another without end." jo reyes-boitel's poems are bold and brave; they refuse to look away from what is burning and show us that sometimes fire can create a path for self-fulfillment.