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A review by savvylit
Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This collection is so many things at once! Postcolonial Love Poem is a condemnation of American imperialism historical and present. Postcolonial Love Poem is a testament to indigenous joy in spite of oppression. Postcolonial Love Poem is a lament for the way trauma affects family. Postcolonial Love Poem is a celebration of sapphic sensuality.
Here are some of my favorite passages, which hopefully illustrate my short review:
"Let me call my anxiety, desire, then. Let me call it, a garden."
"Maps are ghosts: white and layered with people and places I see through."
"But in an American room of one hundred people,
I am Native American—less than one, less than
whole—I am less than myself. Only a fraction
of a body, let’s say, I am only a hand-
and when I slip it beneath the shirt of my lover I disappear completely."
"All this time,
I thought my mother said, Wait,
as in, Give them a little more time
to know your worth,
when really, she said, Weight,
meaning heft, preparing me
for the yoke of myself
the beast of my country's burdens,
which is less worse than
my country's plow."
Here are some of my favorite passages, which hopefully illustrate my short review:
"Let me call my anxiety, desire, then. Let me call it, a garden."
"Maps are ghosts: white and layered with people and places I see through."
"But in an American room of one hundred people,
I am Native American—less than one, less than
whole—I am less than myself. Only a fraction
of a body, let’s say, I am only a hand-
and when I slip it beneath the shirt of my lover I disappear completely."
"All this time,
I thought my mother said, Wait,
as in, Give them a little more time
to know your worth,
when really, she said, Weight,
meaning heft, preparing me
for the yoke of myself
the beast of my country's burdens,
which is less worse than
my country's plow."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Addiction, and Colonisation