What’s that Simic poem
where he’s a boat
lost at sea, floating into fog?
Or was he the fog?
Me I’m a landfill. I’m not
going nowhere, been lost
since the start, damned
to see the worst—
to smell ranker and ruder
and more mutated and rotten
‘til me and the sea
are something new entirely—
crushed Coke can for an asshole.
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Julián Martinez (he/him) is the son of Mexican and Cuban immigrants. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in HAD, Hooligan Mag, Rejection Letters and elsewhere. His micro-chapbook, This Place Is Covered Head To Toe In Shit, is out Summer 2024 with Ghost City Press. Find him online @martinezfjulian or www.martinezfjulian.com, or IRL in Chicago.