Lisa Martens

Quote from Honest Men Only by LM Martens, available on Amazon and Ko-Fi July 2023. 

Quote from Honest Men Only, available on Amazon and Ko-Fi July 2023. 

living fully not desperately.

i didn’t want to heal, but i did 
i wanted to be hurting forever, to love you forever
 but it never happens that way. i fell out of love 
and you turned into static 
the heart moves on, even when you don’t want it to. you came back, after i had forgotten you
 your name meant nothing to me, and that’s when you tried to 
come back from the dead, from the static. And that made me sad. I wish I could be in love with you again
 I wish I could be mad at you, because that would mean I have feelings for you. But I do not. You waited too long. Why do they always wait too long?


let me pretend your smile is waiting for me, for just a little while longer, let me feel this brand of poison in my heart, for just a second more.

Stay sane and caffeinated.

“When I’m in hell, he’ll be there with a half smile, head down,” she thought. “And I will be so happy.”

He got under my skin in three days. After four years of living like a plastic robot queen, I begged him to ruin my life. I couldn’t believe we had been living concurrently, in different spaces, and that our timelines took so long to cross.

In the moonlight, they’re both angels.

I knew, when I looked at you, that it would be over fast.

I am allowed to set boundaries. I am allowed to be happy. I am allowed to be stronger than people who try to hurt me or absorb my energy. I am allowed to say no. I am in control of my own time. I do not have to enjoy my passions in silence. I can be proud of my talents and desires. I am open to the universe while preserving my own unique energy. The universe wants me to express myself instead of absorbing the goals and energy of others.

from Ghosts Wear Condoms

She was thirteen with a deep voice and a red halter top. She licked a lollipop a little too provocatively. It was uncertain how much she knew, and how much of it was bravado. She wanted to be a prostitute. She didn't want to be a prostitute. She wanted what a prostitute has without doing what a prostitute does.

Eleven years in the city, and a lot of people who came here to be famous have babies now. Cocaine replaced with laundry day. It didn't take long---just one roofie during a night out, or few walks of shame through the long tunnel connecting Times Square to Port Authority. Maybe your ex started dating Rihanna and you starting hedging your bets with less impressive men. And it's not so bad. The bills are somewhat paid. Your students loans are going into collections, but you have time before the legal department calls your extended family.

Two of my four roommates are having sex. I'm quiet, headphones in, but I can still hear it. Sex has such as obvious, almost mechanical sound. I think of an egg beater hitting rhythmically against the inside of a bowl. I'm hungry. There's half an avocado still in the fridge. But I know if I get up to eat it, they will stop having sex because they will hear me moving. And they'll wait until I'm in bed trying to sleep before starting up again. "I need to be rich," I think to myself.

"I have to respect the things I'm good at. I can't keep putting aside what I love because someone else needs a babysitter or a secretary. I have to stop thinking that because I'm a woman, these thoughts are selfish. There are things only I can do and I'm doing them."