This book is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.

The author wishes to acknowledge the generous assistance of Clifton Reed and Stuart Presley, friends, housemates, writers/artists in their own right who helped to cover rent, utilities, and allowed their cupboards to be periodically raided by this hungry poet in 1988-89. Without their aid this collection would not have been possible—thanks to no grants at all.

Please support the following publications where poems from this collection first appeared:

“Drawings” in ZYZZYVA 5.2; 41 Sutter, Suite 1400, San Francisco, CA 94104.

“The Poet Is Served Her Papers,” “On Love and Hunger,” “Colorado Blvd.,” “The Captive’s Verses,” “Continental Divide” in The Americas Review 17.3-4; University of Houston, Houston TX 77204-2090.

“The Levee: Letter to No One,” “Pleiades from the Cables of Genocide” in Frontiers 11.1; Women Studies programs, Univesity of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0246.

“Raisins” in The Berkeley Poetry Review 21; 700 Eshleman Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.

“The Last Meal” in Quarry West 24; and “To We Who Were Saved by the Stars,” “Walking Around” in Quarry West 26: “Diálogo a Chicanas y Chicanos”; Porter College, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064.

“Lápiz Azul” was first published in broadside form by Toothpaste Press, Iowa and by Humanizarte 9.1 along with “Le Petit Mal”; Centro Chicano de Escritores, 477 15th Street, Rm. 200, Oakland, CA 94612

“On the Fear of Going Down” in The Mid-American Review 10.1; 106 Hanna Hall, Department of English, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403.

“Colorado” in Tonantzin September-October, 1990; guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, 1300 Guadalupe St., San Antonio, TX 78207-5519.

Recovering the past, creating the future

Arte Público Press
University of Houston
Houston, Texas 77204-2174

Cover design by Mark Piñón
Original painting by Diana Rodríguez Cárdenas: “Desasesinados,” Copyright © 1989

Cervantes, Lorna Dee.

From the cables of genocide: poems on love and hunger / Lorna Dee Cervantes.

p.  cm.

ISBN 1-55885-033-3

I. Title.

PS3553.E79F7 1991

811'.54-dc20

91-8721

 

CIP

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. image

Copyright © 1991 by Lorna Dee Cervantes
Printed in the United States of America

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