PART I

COMO LA FLOR, TANTO AMOR

Your music makes me feel lonely

I must be responsible for it

I’m alive

—ARIANA REINES

Hello, querido reader.

Do you like poetry?

Maybe you like songs?

Do songs get trapped in your

head like a rat on sticky paper?

Are you afraid of dying

and does it fuel you?

We aren’t trying to

sell you anything,

but consider hanging us

on your wall.

Primero que todo,

we love chisme.

What is a meal

without the seasoning of gossip?

What is a conversation without

a little talking-some-shit?

We make eyes

at each other through the trees.

We clink our beers together on rooftops.

We send messages later, on the car ride home.

We all know the story of Selena Quintanilla.

The Tejana pop star who was murdered

by her best friend and the manager

of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar.

There are heroes.

There are villains.

There are fans.

There are girls trying to find

their reflection in a rippling

pond, and then feeling startled

when a piece of gum falls out

of their mouth.

There is a frog that thinks

the gum is a fly and chokes to death.

Where were we?

This is a story of mirrors,

or what happens

when you bring the mirror

back from the dead and when

you look in it you see yourself

eating yourself.

This is about You,

except when it’s not about you.

This is a love story.

But it isn’t our story.

However, as chismosas, we feel

that it happened to us.

So we believe we are the best

ones to tell it.

We will try to

tell it to you

the best that we can.

First, let’s introduce

our speaker, Melissa,

who does not speak

entirely for us.

She is a girl who dreams

a lot.