Striving By Alex Z. Salinas

Larry Rios—murderer and unrenowned Chicano poet—strives to pen the realest poem of all time. How to accomplish that? First, accept that 70% of life is false advertising. Second, appreciate the blood-soaked earth. Third, limit cheesy, sentimental adverbs. I mean, really limit them. Last, write opposite of what you’d tell your mother. Easy. Then suddenly Larry is sidetracked at work. He commiserates with colleagues. He reluctantly buys a fish. He thinks about his (s)ex. He chews on last words of his favorite novels. He writes frog poems to generate better ideas. He takes hot showers, hopes the fog inside clears.

Alex Z. Salinas lives in San Antonio, Texas. He is the author of WARBLES, a full-length poetry collection from Hekate Publishing (2019). His short fiction, poetry and op-eds have appeared in various print and digital publications, including in The Crossroads Magazine, and he serves as poetry editor for the San Antonio Review. He holds an M.A. in English Literature and Language from St. Mary’s University.