His latest book of poems, On Purpose, is a slim 65 pages saturated with heartbreaking ruminations on relationships, and the mundane elevated to the lyrical. Some of the poems are small and sweet (“As opposed to those that flow / because an onion is reduced to pieces / … / authentic tears, like these, like yours, / contain much higher rates of manganese, / thought responsible for sadness.” Others, like “The Underwood No. 4,” four pages long, span great emotional distances in Laird’s taut language. “Lipstick” stands out as an extraordinarily visceral and powerful piece. Influenced by the journal of a British soldier who participated in liberating Bergen-Belsen in 1945, it recreates the incredible image of a relief truck filled with lipstick tubes descending upon concentration camp victims.