Missed Call

by Osmani Alcaraz-Ochoa

Why didn’t you pick up my call last night?

I called you from a different phone.


Well, I didn’t recognize the number… you know I don’t answer from unknown numbers.

What’s up?


Well, I called you from the Purgatory.


¡No es cierto!

You were not at the satellite space jail, again!


I was… and I needed you.


What the hell were you doing up there?


Oh you know, I just decided to take a little vacation [both laugh]

Pues, I was brought up here. Had court on Monday and before the judge even walked in, the Planetary Border Guards showed up, all dramatic and shit, and just took me. Dude, they escorted me out the fuckin’ planet yo. Gotta love this VIP treatment, right? [chuckles]


Wtf.


And last night I was taken from the Purgatory to over here by freakin’ Saturn.


Omg.


Yeah, I can see Saturn from here, it’s soooo freakin’ close, it’s huge. It looks like if it’s about to crash into me.


Wowww, I’m still shook.

Can’t believe you’re actually gone, gone—like that far!


I know… I’ll miss you.


…Don’t say that.


I will. Even though you’re the one that dumped my ass! [chuckles]


Ugh, you know I had to. It’s not what I needed right now.


Just… right now?!


I mean, ever [eyebrows wrinkle]

I had promised myself I’d never let anyone walk me back into the closet     And you did that.

[pause]


You loved me so shamefully. You set ablaze

My heart. Loved me only 

When night   fell, only in      / text 

Messages or / behind locked / doors, in bed 

or

In sealed love letters from satellite 

detention centers—


I know, I know.

 

Only in… 

The closet you walked me back into

Again and again          and again. [voice fades to sadness]


I know, and I’m really sorry about all of that.

Look, you made the best decision for you. And even though it hurts, eso lo respeto.

You deserve more, you deserve what I’m just not able to give you. Y eso es una tough pillow to swallow, tú sabes.

But daaaamn, I at least wanted a good-bye fuck! [both laugh]


[pause]


And now I’m freakin’ on the edge of the pinche solar system. ¡No mames, wey!

Fuck my life.


Damn.

Do you float up there?


Nooo! [laughs] I don’t float up here, just feel hella weightless and we kinda move in slower motion. 


How trippy! And what do you see up there? I mean, besides Saturn’s big ass?


Well… We can’t go outside ‘cause it’s a fuckin’ frozen wasteland, like a creepy Antarctica, I guess. There are ice cliffs here, big towers of ice, and small plumes of water vapor that just randomly erupt every so often, out of the blue.


Soooo, it’s really cold.


Yeah, pretty much [chuckles]


But you said you’re indoors?


Yeah, in Ithaca Chasma. It’s like a bunch of connected glass buildings. 


So the city is covered?


Yeah, kind of like a dome, but not. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. You’d have to come visit me to see for yourself.


That’s not possible [nervous laugh]


I would take you to the strip club!


What?! They have that up there?!


Yeah, it’s really cool! It’s in a floating venue with its own transparent dome. The cyborg performers are amazing, so androgynous, and so, so hot. Y de música, they’re obsessed with Lolo Zouaï and Doja Cat up here.


That does sound amazing. Now I wanna go party it up. [laughs]

Oye, y ¿cómo esta tú mami? I bet she’s sad.


She is. Pero ¿qué se va hacer?


I’ll give her a call sometime. It would be nice to catch up with her.


Yeah, that would help her not feel so lonely.


…Oye, I gotta go. Gonna start getting ready for a---


A date?!


Nooo. [laughs]

Hanging out with Alex and Vero.

Vamos ir al concierto de Rosie & the Originals.


Chaaaale. Well, have fun ‘Angel Baby’ [both chuckle]

Te voy a extrañar tanto.

…Sabes, it sucks a lot to be so much further from the sun now

But more so, it sucks to be furthest from you.


[pause]


You know, I needed you to pick-up the call that night [shaky voice, nose sniffles]


[pause]


No… Sorry, I couldn’t.

I don't think there's anything I could have done

to save you  

from the moons of Saturn.


[signal fades]

Osmani is a queer Mexican-Xicano poet, co-editor at Maíz Poppin’ Press, and a national organizer for immigrant and worker rights based in San Antonio, Texas. Their migrant futurist work has appeared in Space & Time Magazine, Star*Line Magazine, Windward Review, Cuéntame Literary Magazine, La Raíz Magazine, and VOICES de La Luna. They were honored to receive the 2025-2026 Abode Press chapbook prize for How to Survive an Asthma Attack in a Climate Apocalypse. For more information, please visit osmaniochoa.com.