What to read after How Long She'll Last in this World?

Let go your keys, let go your gun, let go your good pen and your rings, let your wolf mask go and kiss goodbye your goddess figurine. With this invocation, Mar’a MelŽndez beckons us on a journeyÑan exotic expedition through lifeÕs mysteries in search of the finer strands of experience. In a Latina voice laced with a naturalistÕs sense of wonder, she weaves bold images reflecting a world threaded by unseen wounds, now laid before us with an unflinching love of life and an exquisite precision of language. Adopting multiple guisesÑfield researcher, laboring mother, grief-stricken loverÑMelŽndez casts aside stereotypes and expectations to forge a new language steeped in life and landscape. Whether meditating on a controlled prairie burn or contemplating the turquoise cheek of a fathead minnow, she weaves words and memories into a rich tapestry that resonates with sensual detail and magnifies her sense of maternal wildness, urging us to ÒLove as much as you / can, donÕt throw your heart / away to just one god.Ó In her paean to the Aztec deity Tonacacihuatl, mother of the gods, MelŽndez muses that ÒHow many spirits sheÕs twin to, and how long sheÕll last in this world, / are secrets stashed in the rattle / of corn ears, in the coils / of venomous snakes.Ó Through stunning images and stark realism, her poems embrace motherhood and vocation, love and grief, land and life, to bring new meaning to the natural world and how we experience it.