Starred review from March 1, 2023
A mid-career poet, performer, and novelist, Hernandez has already generated the work of a lifetime, drawing on themes of history, migration, imperialism, and legacy. In this volume's new poems, Hernandez invents new takes on his established interests, scoring land acknowledgments to Woody Guthrie (""This land is your land, / this land is Comanche land"") and infusing rich imagery with biting humor (""if bone and stone / could bellow / Cucurrucuc� Paloma / to coax white Jesus / down from brown Cristo Rey, / he would no doubt / find his way""). It's fascinating to chart the poet's evolution of style across two decades, whether he's depicting California's radiant topography (""the voluptuous golden thigh of a foothill"") and complicated demographics (""Millions of Hernandezes"") in Natural Takeover of Small Things (2013); wordsmithing surprise sound combinations in Culture of Flow (2012): ""Drought gone to quails. / Maize gasoline martyrs. / Blues fissure-man sucking""; or exploring new terrain in the relatively settled stanzas from his debut, Skin Tax (2004): ""I reject your touch / and love you from where I stand / because stepping closer / would mean leaving this place."" An indispensable primer to an accomplished poet who seems only to be getting started.
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