poem by Alexandra Martinez

“A History of Universal Mythologies”

Are you able to answer the following questions honestly:
Are you able to smile when running into an acquaintance on the street?
Can you see their love for you in the way they speak to you?
It makes it enough — momentarily —
to remember that the desert doesn’t need yet another ghost
that La Llorona was never ever speaking to you
or for you
that the great comet that passed over you that night was not a sign
or an omen
just another chunk of rock floating out in space
like a ring going down the drain
And if you answered those questions honestly?
tell me how you are able to sleep at night
knowing people relish living inside colossal untruths
and universal mythologies that make the everyday mundanities
easier not better
Does it help to add more butter to the bread?
More wine to the glass?
and when you’ve finished raise your limp hand to the waiter and announce

check please

Alexandra Martinez is a writer, radio host, and tumbleweed living in Joshua Tree, CA. She is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. Martinez is the author of Our Lady of Perpetual Desert (Inlandia Books, 2023) and HEARTBREAKER (Wax Nine, 2022).