Flirting With The Past by Reyes Cárdenas
Sepia-tinged nostalgia lures everyone in sooner or later. It’s tempting to skip back over bridges burned so long ago we can’t remember which one of us even held the match anymore. Everyone has plenty of emotional blind-spots. But how do you validate a memory when the one who holds the other half of your recollection is gone forever? Reyes Cardenas’ newest writing collection, Flirting With The Past, oscillates between themes of ageing out of childhood and returning to a place that no longer exists. He’s adopted a swift couplet-style, which is perfect because Cardenas’ meter is quick bursts of expressive, combustible imagery. If the Barrio Gods allowed the 12-year old you to peek behind the curtain and speak with the 60-year old you, would you ask what happens to Dad- to Lupita- to Pete with the Honda bike? Most likely, you’d find “sometimes your past and your future / meet up with each other to destroy themselves”.
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-Christian Garduno, 2020 Finalist, Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry
In Flirting with the Past, Chicano poet Reyes Cárdenas, takes us on a quick journey through Texas cotton fields, into westside barrios, the silhouette of his abuelos, and sweaty summer romances. Through jabbing couplets, Cárdenas is unapologetic and mixes in the pop culture of his lifetime. Flirting with the Past holds crushing poems that his fans will love.
-Vincent Cooper, author of Zarzamora and Where the Reckless Ones Come To Die
Reyes Cárdenas’ seventh collection of poetry, Flirting With the Past, has the full feel of memoir. A very raw and unapologetic look into a world not following a straight line, but rather zigzagging in and out of time. Cardenas paints us a vivid world of characters who kneel in cotton fields, walk barrio streets, and visit the ocean searching for their mothers. Besides other recognizable landmarks, the Guadalupe river is ever present, with all the stories and secrets she holds. Do not miss this carefully crafted gem of a poetry book.
- Odilia Galván Rodríguez, author of The Color of Light (FlowerSong Press, 2019) and co-editor of the award winning anthology Poetry of Resistance Voices for Social Justice, (University of Arizona Press) and Publisher at Prickly Pear Publishing.