"There's a thin line between love and hate," he starts, half-singing the lyric from the 1971 song by The Persuaders. "When you're dealing with a creature...who does not care about you as anything other than a way of receiving food." These are thoughts that come into the mind of acclaimed poet Douglas Kearney, whose latest collection Patter explores the struggles during a couple's infertility, of a father navigating a powerful and imperfect history of role models, and of the dreadful calculus involved in figuring out how to discipline your children.