Filled with the nuanced beauty and complexity of the everyday--a pot of
beans, a goat carcass, embroidered linens, a grandfather's cancer--A
Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying journeys through the inherited fear of
creation and destruction. The histories of South Texas and its people
unfold in Laurie Ann Guerrero's stirring language, including the
dehumanization of men and its consequences on women and children.
Guerrero's tongue becomes a palpable border, occupying those liminal
spaces that both unite and divide, inviting readers to consider that
which is known and unknown: the body. Guerrero explores not just the
right, but the ability to speak and fight for oneself, one's children,
one's community--in poems that testify how, too often, we fail to see
the power reflected in the mirror.