Sun. Feb 1st, 2026

THERE’S A DEAD MAN HOLDING A BABY UNDER MY BED

THERE'S A DEAD MAN HOLDING A BABY UNDER MY BED by San Arriozola cover image

The Lysol aerosol spray stopped masking the smell weeks ago. I invested in an air conditioner this summer, which partially let the body be saved through the dragging days of August. 

As September opened, I thought to myself, “This will all go away,” and I even believed it.

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Author

  • Samantha Arriozola (she/her/hers) is a Chicana writer and youth worker from the Chicagoland-area. She has spent the past ten years working within nonprofit spaces and community centers in Madison, WI and NYC. Sam received her B.A. in English-Creative Writing as a proud member of the 8th Cohort of First Wave—a Hip-Hop and urban arts full-tuition scholarship program at UW-Madison, centering the pursuit of higher education with arts, academics, and activism. Samantha is a poet with roots in the world of spoken word poetry and slam, a background which has carried over in coaching young spoken word artists to compete in the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival in 2017 and 2018. Samantha’s poetry has been published in Pinwheel Journal (2019) and Cutthroat Journal: Contemporary Chicanx Writers Anthology (2020). Samantha lives in Queens with her human and plant roommates, editing both her own and fellow writers’ work with an oat chai latte.

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By Samantha Arriozola

Samantha Arriozola (she/her/hers) is a Chicana writer and youth worker from the Chicagoland-area. She has spent the past ten years working within nonprofit spaces and community centers in Madison, WI and NYC. Sam received her B.A. in English-Creative Writing as a proud member of the 8th Cohort of First Wave—a Hip-Hop and urban arts full-tuition scholarship program at UW-Madison, centering the pursuit of higher education with arts, academics, and activism. Samantha is a poet with roots in the world of spoken word poetry and slam, a background which has carried over in coaching young spoken word artists to compete in the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival in 2017 and 2018. Samantha’s poetry has been published in Pinwheel Journal (2019) and Cutthroat Journal: Contemporary Chicanx Writers Anthology (2020). Samantha lives in Queens with her human and plant roommates, editing both her own and fellow writers’ work with an oat chai latte.