Backwards Summary

The poem starts with Shire describing her father walking backwards into a room, signaling that he is returning to their lives. She then depicts her sister and herself developing in reverse, before claiming she will rewrite their childhood and fill it with love. Following this she references the abuse that they suffered, stating that she will cut off the hands of anyone who "touched [them] without consent." She also describes the undoing of a series of negative events: her step-father "spits liquor back into a glass," her mother falls back up the stairs, her broken bone snapping back into its original place, and does not suffer the loss of her unborn child. In the final lines of the stanza, Shire expresses her desire to rewrite their entire childhood and suffuse it with love. The second stanza contains the same lines as the first, but in the opposite order. This places special emphasis on their father's return, as well as showing the severity of the trauma that they endured.