A review by shuly
There Should Be Flowers by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza

4.0

All that womanhood
caught in the roof
of my mouth
was like honey.
I knew it would never
go bad
so I never said a word
about it.

–From "My First Love"

Espinoza's poetry is like balm on wounds I never even knew I had. She has a mastery of imagery that shines through in her grounded and minimalist style but what marks her work the most for me, another trans woman, is the way she hones so many of the feelings and experiences of our shared experiences with such definite and unique names. There Should be Flowers is the kind of work I will return to again and again, even after reading it front-to-back and back-to-front twice.