<p>In Breach, New Orleans native Nicole Cooley recalls Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in gritty, poignant detail, bearing witness to the destruction of a region and to its recovery. Ranging from the urgent to the reflective, these poems speak not only to the horrors of the immediate disaster, but also to family dynamics in a time of crisis and to the social, political, and cultural realities that contextualized the storm and its wake. In the title poem, Cooley invokes the multiple meanings of the word &quot;breach&quot; -- breach of the levees, breach of trust -- which resonate with survivors in the Crescent City, and in &quot;Evacuation,&quot; she recounts her efforts to encourage her parents to leave the city and her harrowing three-day wait to hear from them after they refused. A number of poems, including &quot;Write a Love Letter to Camellia Grill,&quot; &quot;The Superdome: A Suite,&quot; and &quot;Biloxi Bay Bridge Still Out,&quot; offer a broad range of voices and experiences to expand the perspective beyond Cooley's own family. With language and images both powerful and precise, this compelling collection dares us to &quot;watch the surface of the city tear like loose skin.&quot;</p>