Blending poetic memoir and revelation, the matchstick litanies opens on family violence and women’s work—both often silenced. These richly detailed poems, however, reclaim the voice of a speaker who excavates family stories woven with hard truths, spanning generations and who comes to see clearly their own "inheritance by what was visible: translucent scorpions braving the hot sidewalks, / winged ants following one another without end." jo reyes-boitel's poems are bold and brave; they refuse to look away from what is burning and show us that sometimes fire can create a path for self-fulfillment.

the matchstick litanies hold the power to burn it all down, but they are wise survivors, weaving a poetics of witness and experience into an exceptional and necessary testimonio. The collection makes room for frogs and stars in its cinematography and for lyric leaps in its score to “bring the spirit back to the body” without “false sunrise” and with conocimiento. jo reyes-boitel is a master storyteller of the past and present with a keen eye on the future, which is an act of love for us all in need of this sabiduría. 
  —Emmy Pérez, 2020 Texas State Poet Laureate, With the River on Our Face

What might it mean to be in relation as husband and wife, as brother and sister, mother and daughter, father and daughter, as one wedded to the sky above and the surrounding landscape? In the matchstick litanies, jo reyes-boitel is an attentive poet-observer telling us the answers rest in the nucleus of a family haunted by hurt. In this family men inherit pain, control pain, and bequeath its violence while women labor and exist at their mercy. Despite the wreckage, it is reyes-boitel’s lyrical crafting of brief pastoral moments—mesquite trees passed on a winter’s drive home or the “constant bird caws, the constant sun”—that provide both poet and reader not escape from familial combustion, but a momentary solace.
  —Niki Herd, author of The Language of Shedding Skin and co-editor Laura Hershey: On the Life & Work of an American Master

Through the darkness of so many of these poems, jo’s resilient and beautiful voice resonates with longing and love for their subject. Haunting and memorable, these poems will linger in your mind and soul. Family, childhood, complicated and difficult relationships reside here. The poet tends to their language with great care. Often these palpable images and lines will leave you breathless. reyes-boitel is an important poet, this book will alight your dreams and expectations!
  —Virgil Suárez, visual artist, writer, and poet, AMERIKAN CHERNOBYL

Winner of the 2021 Neon Hemlock Poetry Series edited by Saida Agostini.
Limited quantities available.

“This work is a dare. We are lucky to be blessed with this witness.”
— Saida Agostini, author of STUNT

“In mouth, jo reyes-boitel speaks of deadly fear, the complexity of figs, the constant moon, and survival of the queer body — triumphant and illuminating, juxtaposing domestic abuse with distorted beauty, mysticism, and owning your self. jo reyes-boitel disrupts fairy tale dreams, telling it like it is to obtain personal freedom.”
— Sarah Rafael García, author of SanTana’s Fairy Tales & founder of LibroMobile

“mouth invites us to experience the words that unravel the terrors of intimate partner violence, the subversion of BDSM, and the fierceness of femme-centered femininity. With luscious language and striking imagery, jo reyes-boitel compels us to occupy those interstitial spaces that define queer Latinx intimacies of survival, persistence, and elation.”
—Lilia Raquel Rosas, Executive Director of Red Salmon Arts

“With pain, power and triumph, jo reyes-boitel’s poems are a meditation, navigating the human geography of longing, loving and surviving, and resisting the seduction of self-destruction to achieve self-redemption. These are strong words and vivid lines that cling to the soul’s memory.”
—Charles Rice-González, author of Chulito

Michael + Josephine is an unexpected love story between St. Michael the Archangel reimagined as a queer woman, and Josephine, a multiethnic Latina who works as a disaster relief worker. Both have busy, full lives helping the world around them. Too busy for a relationship, they contend. Still, they are drawn together at a moment when crises around the world are at an all-time high. In navigating a new kind of love, both solidify the importance of personal and community connection.

"Jo’s content and poetic craft played like a jazz quartet between my ears - tender, reckless and delicious."
—Anel I. Flores, author of Empanada, a Lesbiana Story en Probaditas

"Surrender to the considerable enchantments of Jo Reyes-Boitel’s magical book, Michael + Josephine: a novel in verse. Inhabit this tale of a complex relationship told in language that is lush, aggrieved, ecstatic, and simple. In poems that are at once visionary and every day, Reyes-Boitel steadfastly refuses to separate divinity from reality. She revels in both instead."
—Jim LaVilla-Havelin, author of West, poems of a place