Poems of different eras and styles by different poets appear throughout Crossed. The form itself emerges as a motif in moments of emotional intensity. For example, Chapter 27 is a poem written by Ky. The poem is about the night he shares with Cassia—just the two of them, free do to and say what they want. This alone time is what they’ve been fighting for, and when they finally have it, ordinary prose doesn’t do it justice. Ky has to burst into verse to capture the experience of everything else falling away, even the world: “we stood on it while it spun / green and blue and red / the music ended / but we / were still / singing” (213).

Characters usually quote lines that speak to the current plot. For example, Cassia quotes “Poem in October” by Dylan Thomas to herself while she climbs a rock formation: “High tide and the heron dived when I took the road / Over the border” (142). She climbs over the rocks, looking for a high vantage point. When she looks down and sees Ky, she scrabbles down the rocks, almost diving, to go meet him. Poems are also used to honor the dead, as Ky does for his fellow decoys and

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