Poetry: at the lakeshore trader joe’s they were playing the x files theme song by Samia Saliba
Animated by its speaker’s distinct voice, this poem by Samia Saliba catalogues feelings of alienation that eventually draw us into a moment of ekphrastic revelation.
at the lakeshore trader joe’s they were playing the x files theme song
& i was like is everyone hearing this or is the alien arrival
finally upon us? i was
very lonely at the time. i dyed
my hair purple but it faded
in a week. i hated
being blonde. i woke up
at 4:45 every day. i took provocative
polaroids in the bath &
mailed them to my boyfriend. he didn’t send
anything back. at the asian art museum
charisa sketched my face & placed
it among the art. fuming from the mouth,
a speech bubble cried: i need water! this was
the first time i recognized myself in months. i wanted
to keep the drawing but instead i snapped a photo &
posted it on instagram. among the garden of mostly-obscured
uncanny photos of my face. then we walked
into the next room & saw an acrylic orb
pulsing with blue neon letters. they said:
DARKNESS! DARKNESS!
DARKNESS! CAN I HOLD
YOUR HAND?
Samia Saliba
Samia Saliba (she/her) is an LA-based writer, artist, and PhD student in American Studies & Ethnicity. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Palette Poetry, Apogee, Mizna, & elsewhere. Her debut chapbook of poems about the X-Files is forthcoming with Game Over Books. Find her on twitter @sa_miathrmoplis or in real life petting a cat.
