“Horror Movie Where We Survive,” a Poem by Maya Salameh
From the Collection Mermaid Theory
you waltz through the bouquet of zombies
outside the Albertson’s, skip pristine
sneakers over frankenstein feet. the dead
woman’s gown is hissing, but it doesn’t
matter. whatever happens next the annals
will conjugate. wear your most expensive
shoes, the dress with the long slit that makes
you feel like a good omen, bring the
locket full of teeth. scrawl the obituary in spit.
grief is like nicotine, it’s a practice,
& despite the haunting, despite the history,
you reek of fever & lotus root, wrest
aloe vera peppermint elm from the dry
ground. you make the pavement bloom.
you build altars from soda bottles, cherry
pits, bobby pins, the wings of moths
not yet extinct. dial the headphones to
solange, let her sing you the sound of rain.
__________________________________
From Mermaid Theory. Used with the permission of the publisher, Haymarket Books. Copyright © 2026 by Maya Salameh
Maya Salameh
Maya Salameh is the author of How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave (University of Arkansas Press, 2022), winner of the 2022 Etel Adnan Prize, and the chapbook rooh (Paper Nautilus Press, 2020). Salameh has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference, and the President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities. She has served as a National Student Poet, America’s highest honor for youth poets, and a Community Organizer for the Institute for Diversity in the Arts. Her work has appeared in The Offing, Mizna, Poetry, Gulf Coast, and The Rumpus, among others. She is based in Los Angeles, California.
