I saw a flyer stapled to a telephone pole with the words:
“Looking to buy houseflies bred in Colombia.”
I had a couple of flying cockroaches from Honduras. I even had a gnat from Algeria,
but no houseflies bred in Colombia to profit from.
I continued to walk until I bumped into my doppelgänger at The Moroccan Lounge.
He asked me where I was from. I lied and told him Bogotá.
He put his machete away and told me I was lucky to be born in Colombia.
I agree, I thought, because in my original country of birth, most of us
are macheted to death by our doppelgängers.
Steve Castro’s work is forthcoming in SLICE Magazine; Salamander; Dryland; 7×7. It was most recently published in Strange Horizons; The Coachella Review; Somos en escrito; PALABRITAS; HeartWood Literary Magazine and Speculative Fiction For Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology (The Ohio State University Press). Regarding his debut poetry collection, Blue Whale Phenomena, (Otis Books – Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA) published in 2019, Shari Wagner wrote, “This is an amazing book, an astonishing first collection.” Birthplace: Costa Rica.