The Lesser Tragedy of Death. Cristina Garcia
BLACK GOAT is an independent poetry imprint of Akashic Books created and curated by award-winning Nigerian author Chris Abani. Black Goat is committed to publishing well-crafted poetry, focusing on experimental and thematically challenging work. The series aims to create a proportional representation of female and non-American poets, with an emphasis on Africans. Series titles include:
Gomer’s Song by Kwame Dawes
The Ravenous Audience by Kate Durbin
Globetrotter & Hitler’s Children by Amatoritsero Ede
Abstraktion und Einfühlung by Percival Everett
Auto Mechanic’s Daughter by Karen Harryman
Controlled Decay by Gabriela Jauregui
eel on reef by Uche Nduka
Conduit by Khadijah Queen
to be hung from the ceiling by strings of varying length by Rick Reid
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Published by Akashic Books
©2010 Cristina García
ePUB ISBN-13: 978-1-936-07079-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-936070-01-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009939083
All rights reserved
Black Goat
c/o Akashic Books
PO Box 1456
New York, NY 10009
For Paqui
Acknowledgments
Mil gracias to Dean Rader for his generosity and brilliance.
Thank you to Donna Seaman and to Triquarterly for publishing “Twenty-Nine Palms,” and to Daniel Shapiro for including “Spell,” “Brownstone,” “Twenty-Nine Palms,” “Namesake,” and “What You Dream” in Review 78, Literature and Arts of the Americas. Also, my gratitude to Craig Perez and Jennifer Reimer of Achiote Press for their early support of my poetry.
And, of course, un gran abrazo to Chris Abani, friend without peer.
Every Angel is terrible. And yet, alas,
I sing to you …
—Rainer Maria Rilke
TABLE OF CONTENTS
By the Sea
Easy Out
Queens
Deseo #2
Adonis
First Time
PART II: 1973–1994
Deseo #3
Brownstone
Respuesta
Knight
Your Room
Newspapers
Report
What You Dream
Trip
Flight School
Brain
Mugging
Twenty-Nine Palms
A Pastoral
Vigilante
Namesake
His Best Friend
Girlfriend
What They Found
In Cuban
Salvation
Princeton
Deseo #4
Respuesta
Sunday
PART III: 1995–2007
Winter Tapestry
Your Advice
Distaste
Fried Rice
Twelve Years Ago
Wedding
Listen
Ode
Poultry
Angels
El Clave
Bipolar
Prayer
Deseo #5
Respuesta
Reincarnated
Ascension
Shrink
In Your Other Life
Forgetting
Spell