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The speaker in this extraordinary collection finds herself multiply dislocated: from her childhood in California, from her family's roots in Mexico, from a dying parent, from her prior self. The world is always in motion both toward and away from usand it is also full of risk: from sharks unexpectedly lurking beneath estuarial rivers to the dangers of New York City, where, as Limón reminds us, even rats find themselves trapped by the garbage cans they've crawled into. In such a world, how should one proceed? Throughout Sharks in the Rivers, Limón suggests that we must cleave to the world as it keep[s] opening before us," for, if we pay attention, we can be one with its complex, ephemeral, and beautiful strangeness. Loss is perpetual, and each person's mouth is the same / mouth as everyone's, all trying to say the same thing." For Limón, it's the sayingindividual and collective that transforms each of us into a wound overcome by wonder," that allows the wind itself" to be our own wild whisper Intro -- The Insides -- 1. -- Sharks in the Rivers -- Flood Coming -- The Widening Road -- Good Enough -- High Water -- Diagnosis: Even the Stillaguamish River Cannot Stop Time -- Rescue Animals -- Spawning Ground -- This Practice -- Paseo del Bosque -- Body of Rivers -- Not Enough -- Overjoyed -- Territory -- The Barer the Bones -- 2. -- Crush -- The New World of Beauty -- The Russian River -- Marketing Life for Those of Us Left -- Good Girls -- Hardworking Agreement with a Wednesday -- Homesick -- How to Give Up -- The Crossing -- Ways to Ease Your Animal Mind -- The Commute -- Gratitude in Spite of Oneself -- The Same Thing -- 3. -- Fifteen Balls of Feathers -- 4. -- Bird Bound for a Good World -- Return to Rush and Flutter -- Sharks in the Rivers II -- Drowning in Paradise -- The Weather Reported -- Sting -- The Bird Knows He Is Going to Die and Wishes Not To -- The Undressing Day -- To the Busted Among Us -- The City of Skin -- Big Star -- World Versus Girl -- Fin -- Gratitude -- Big Gratitude -- Notes -- About the Author -- More Poetry from Milkweed Editions
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