Alejandra Cabezas

Sirena

I find stars at the end of every barrel.
They are the wooden nightboats
where my dreams elope. Night after
night, when the shellfish, lonely
cling to my tummy. 

The fisherman have been asleep
for hours. Back home with their wives
and plump, little children. I am left
hungry. With nothing to feed on but
the aftertaste of sex. 

I swallow fish whole just to
keep myself from singing.
The last man I loved taught me
how to crawl in between stones
like a flounder. Handy trick for
when the waves wash away
the roughness of their surface. 

Spiny, the way I stay still when
kissed nowadays. I save my sounds
for beneath the water. When the
jellyfish sting, I orgasm. 

Women like me are like corals.
We open up our stomachs just
to eat.

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Alejandra Cabezas is a poet and storyteller from Antiguo Cuscatlan, El Salvador. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Beaver Magazine Anthology, Litro Magazine, Pleiades, CURA, 128 Lit, Moida Magazine, The Literary Bohemian and elsewhere. She was named Poet of the Month by YES Poetry and represented Mount Holyoke at the 2021 Glascock Poetry Contest. She currently resides in Amsterdam, where she is completing a Master's degree in Museums and Heritage.