You Didn’t Believe Me

When I told you about the other man
Any more than you believed
The day I announced that the moon

Was created when a swath of earth’s
Mantle was shorn away in a cataclysm,
An asteroid, you don’t believe

In cataclysms, don’t believe me
Capable of discovery, of publishing
The very first paper, a new day opening like a switchblade.

I did it, the skeptics crucified me.
Baby, I turned the doorknob like a telescope
And walked into another man’s room.

—Demetria Martínez, 2002