"Beautiful things have inner horrors / I learned to be wary of."

This collection balances darkness with light: the beauty of the flower, the earwig within. Themes of mental health and memory are played out against the superstition that earwigs can burrow in through the ear and eat the brain. The German word ohrworm means earworm: something replaying in the mind. Another theme is the mortality of the human body. Nature struggles, yet its beauty still prevails. Topping explores coming of age, family, bereavement, and how women are represented in life and literature. These poems have their own music, and appeal to both the senses and the intellect. They explore what it feels like to be human in a troubled world.