"Truth, a dominatrix/asserting love is all..." W.M. Rivera writes in "Prelude," one

of the opening poems in the book you are holding. Truth can be pleasurable, and

painful all at the same time, like love and sex. This exploration of truth and love as

double edged sword runs through

Cafe Select.

Rivera's poems are lusty gems,

there's a fighting spirit, and a wise one at work in these poems, sometimes wrestling

with itself, other times wrestling with the great spiritual chink in our armor, other

people and their influence upon us.