Bobby Byrd says "El Paso is a desert city rooted like a thicket of salt cedar, cottonwoods and mesquite on the banks of the Rio Grande. The Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo. This shallow ribbon of muddy water becomes, within the city limits of El Paso, the border between Mexico and the United States. On the other side is Juarez in the state of Chihuahua. Many different people, whether they like it or not, have to come through El Paso. That's what el paso means, the pass, a place to go through. Some, like myself and my family, end up staying a long time."

"Byrd sure shoots a mean game with words. His language, his subject matter, his sensibility are there to remind us that `we really inhabit / the holy body of God,' that we are all `hungry ghosts / all of us." Ultimately, Byrd's book is about the community Byrd has learned to embrace-his book is a work that pays homage to those who have formed him-his neighbors, his children, his wife, the poets whose voices still urge him to write. This is a book for everybody." -Benjamin Alire Saenz