Writing at 19
was like glugging champagne while jacking off in a tubful of foie gras at all hours without shame, without shame, without shame.
Entry Point (ca. 1998)
Probably the man I maybe love is contemplating the blonde’s twat across a Prague café. Maybe he’s already tickled the twat pink. Or is busy knocking himself out with his own fist in the bleakest Czech hotel room…
If I were my mother, I would be trying to marry this man: just yesterday he crammed himself further into me than I will ever go. I am in love with this man, possibly, though I do not trust his haircut: the haircut of an adult whose sole means of transit is electric skateboard.
He’s not unlike my college ex: wrists cuffed to bedposts, I begged him to slap my ass until it bloomed with ghastly purple bruises. Another time on my belly I wormed behind the bruising man I loved deep into the throat of a cave. I wasn’t sure how we’d gotten there: he was petrified of the dark and spiders; blue cheeses and cruise control and most everything else. The center-of-earth smell turned me on like some dank, prehistoric perfume.
The diner afterwards had a confederate flag out front and flood-damaged walls and a retirement home smell, all of which I was too in love to notice. We scarfed fried chicken and instant mashed potatoes. I sucked at his greasy lips between bites. Licked gravy from my plate like a dog.
Honey, why! He can’t even commit to a shave! the waitress hissed. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard it. Even in the center of the worst place, I could dig up something hot and wantable.
Underground, even when I thought I’d die from the lack of air down there, I kept going.
Megan Martin is the author of three books of short, experimental prose, SERIOUS LITERATURE! (Stalking Horse, forthcoming July ’27), NEVERS (Caketrain 2014—out of print; republished by Dzanc as an e-book in 2025) and Sparrow & Other Eulogies (Gold Wake 2011). Her fiction has appeared in Black Warrior Review, Denver Quarterly, WebConjunctions, The Offing, DREGINALD, and elsewhere. She lives in Cincinnati with her partner and three cats. Find her at meganmmartin.com