ALISSA MARTINEZ

Alissa Martinez is a sporadic author, often jumping from genre to genre depending on their fancy. They hope their writing can offer a meaningful glimpse into their truths and reality during their time at the Claremont Colleges.
​(Pomona College '21)

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tw: self-harm

words have started to flow again
from unseemly places, forgotten corners
ones i hoped to abandon years ago
but now they've returned to focus...

Tender

my momma warned me about this
told me to quit the nicotine boys
never let them rot my godly ​lungs...

thinking in the aftershock

i've been the home wrecker the incoming storm
i don't know how many times my name has
passed through a spiteful wife's lips like a curse.

On the Verge of Graduation

I'm worried I broke my brain for nothing--
that the hollow space will never be filled,
nothing to repair in this soil I've long tilled.
And I tell myself learning for learning's sake