A review by thecolourblue
Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

This second collection from Natalie Diaz builds itself around water. Fluid foundations that see it moving from place to place, idea to idea, while keeping a cohesive rhythm. 

Diaz explores the concept of the human body as a body of water - merging biological science with Native American mythology to form her own personal and political narrative - as well as the environmental dangers posed to the bodies of water on American land. It's a heady and commanding combination of metaphorical and literal rivers, and, of course, droughts. One of the more overtly political poems on this theme is the excellent 'Exhibits from the American Water Museum', told as a series of informational signs on the walls of a future exhibit about water, drought, Native culture, and colonialism.

Let me tell you a story about water:
Once upon a time there was us.
America’s thirst tried to drink us away.
And here we still are.

True to Diaz' previous work, there are flashes of startling humor, both in the Water Museum poems and in some of the included poems about love and sex. There are a number of sweet and erotic poems exploring the writer's queer identity and seemingly, paying homage to past or present lovers.

Also continuing a thread from Diaz' first collection, When My Brother Was An Aztec (which I loved), are tales of her family, and particularly her brother and his struggles with addiction. These poems are vignetted memories, some frightening, some achingly joyful. 

I think I do prefer Diaz' first collection to this one, but this is still a masterful work from a poet fully embodied in her own power and vision. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings