CONTESTED TERRAIN captures the myriad identities inside a veteran shaped by birth, geography and, later, a set of experiences that belie any hand-me-down wisdom. Cave Country sees the green, fertile surface give way as the illusion collapses beneath the speaker’s feet; in Desert Skies, a barrage of war images hit faster than the speaker can process them; and Returning to the Hill Country shows the altered landscape, both physical and mental, that awaits his return. The final section, A Handful of Dust shifts from the individual to the culture of fear that has become a new, uncomfortable normal. Gray’s speakers still believe that beauty exists-often in an uneasy coexistence with tension, hypervigilance, and an ever-changing consciousness.