topography of a border / line bird - Paperback

Topography of a border/line bird is a dream lost in the smoke of the destruction of the selves and reconstructed with raw tenderness. Its playful, multi-genre form mimics a mind splintered by trauma. With brutal honesty, the speaker of these poems tells the story of leaving her homeland with her fiercely independent, educated, and mother, while searching for her own identity. The collection creates a shadowed, electric world where people transform after crossing the physical and psychological threshold of the Mexico/U.S. border. Each poem, micro essay, cyanotype, collage, erasure is a small revelation. Topography of a border/line bird masters the art of putting oneself together after being torn open by familial abuse, a government intent on negating one's existence, grief and mental illness.