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)

relapse

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...
​

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.

Tender

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

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