Warming Up By Alex Z. Salinas

The novelist Philip Roth said when a writer is born into a family, the family is ruined. 

I thought this as I raced the shadow of a cloud on an empty road midafternoon. 

By raced, I mean I attempted remaining within the shadow. Shaded. As in, my skin’s pale and melanoma is killing my mother. 

The Texas sun is savage, especially to light-skinned Hispanics. 

Years ago, I wrote a short story about an alcoholic mother. My mother read it. 

“The words are beautiful, but it’s so sad,” she said. 

I’m not a bad omen. But I’m warming up to wrecking ball.

Alex Z. Salinas is the author of two full-length poetry collections: WARBLES, and DREAMT, or The Lingering Phantoms of Equinox. His debut book of short stories, City Lights From the Upside Down, is expected to be published in August 2021. He lives in San Antonio, Texas.