The Book of Skeletons contains a series of poems that reflect on how those subject to history abide in history's personal and impersonal laws. The collection looks into the most intimate workings of events and characters as they are marked or created by history: A woman in an ambulance; a crowd evacuating a city; ghosts riding in elevators up and down. In these poems, the author looks at events in history, including the September 11, 2001 terrorist attck in New York, which she witnessed first-hand.