--- description: Find out why Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz is on TIME's list of the must-read books from this year. title: 'Postcolonial Love Poem' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e65984139701977/698a140b97cdff48fc6bb578/best-books-2020-Postcolonial-Love-Poem.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 09, 2020 # Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  “Let me call my anxiety, _desire_, then. / Let me call it, _a garden_,” writes the poet Natalie Diaz in her luminous, tender second collection, a finalist for a National Book Award. A queer Aha Makav woman, Diaz explores the dissonance between the mysticism forced upon her by the white gaze and the miracle of her continued existence. She shows how the history of colonialism and racism is embedded in her, in her hallucinating brother and in her interactions with a lover. As her striking titular poem concludes: “The rain will eventually come, or not. / Until then, we touch our bodies like wounds— / the war never ended and somehow begins again.” **Buy Now:** _Postcolonial Love Poem_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781644450147 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1644450143/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time-books-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1644450143&linkId=afa70c16edbac6405d306a32648f35d6 "undefined") These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2020/5904310/postcolonial-love-poem/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2020/5904310/postcolonial-love-poem/"},"headline":"'Postcolonial Love Poem' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2020","datePublished":"2020-11-09T20:11:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:44:40.827Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2020/5904310/postcolonial-love-poem/","keywords":["E-Commerce","Books","list"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e65984139701977/698a140b97cdff48fc6bb578/best-books-2020-Postcolonial-Love-Poem.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e65984139701977/698a140b97cdff48fc6bb578/best-books-2020-Postcolonial-Love-Poem.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2020/5904310/postcolonial-love-poem/","name":"'Postcolonial Love Poem' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2020"}}]}] ```