Destruction Bay

Lisa D. Chavez

Rooted in the harsh and dramatic landscape of Alaska, these are poems about women’s lives—women in and out of love, abandoned, angry, or making do. The women who speak in these poems include murderous mothers, young prostitutes, grieving widows, dog breeders, and dreamers.

“Chavez’s poems are piercing and sharp as a northern winter and always they are only a word away from devastation.”—Linda Hogan

I am in love again
and the wind rushes
through the trees—
a snake gliding beneath falling
leaves. I am moved
by small things:
the hair on your forearms
curling golden
as kestrel feathers, your voice
a trilling weight
in my ears. You
look away from me
afraid of this passion
curving my hands into
sickles.

             —“Love in Autumn”

6 x 9 inches • 64 pages • ISBN 0-931122-92-9 • $8.95