In “The Portrait,” the narrator describes his experiences growing up in his mother’s grief. His mother apparently decided to erase her husband’s memory from their home, saying, “She locked his name/ in her deepest cabinet/ and would not let him out/ though I could hear him thumping.” When the narrator tried to bring his father up, years later, his mother tore up the photo and slapped her child, unable to face her feelings on the matter. The nature of grief is such that those experiencing it do odd things, and this woman never fully was able to process these feelings, which made her lash out at her child for daring to acknowledge that this was an experience she had.