My Prerogative Leah Mueller __________ Some people aren’t cut out to be strippers. When I applied to a Bourbon Street club, the owners sent me to their sister establishment, Papa Joe’s. It was a grungy, unisex joint. A woman named Tammy served as its undisputed queen. Her act seemed more…

Bathtub Divorce-Tears Gin Matthew Jakubowski __________ I’m on my ass naked in three inches of bathwater in my divorce apartment. Because life has jokes, on top of the divorce that spring I broke my foot dancing this summer. It’s slung over the side of the tub in a huge fiberglass…

Hairbrush Amanda Hadlock __________ I cleaned out my hairbrush and realized my ex-girlfriend’s hair was stuck in it. I pulledthe clumps out and tossed them off my apartment balcony, watched them float down to the dirt. Then I boiled the brush to get any last trace of her out. I…

House Shoe Scott Garson __________ She lost a house shoe. Did she know this already? Or was she having the realization? She looked at the other house shoe, which stood by the molding next to the door, and tried to recall, and hummed a line of tune, this in a…

The Forest of Me Garima Chhikara __________ Just like that, my body hair became thorns. I stopped shaving—arms, underarms, legs, even my upper lip—and abandoned threading my eyebrows, which need tending to resemble eyebrows at all. In the first few weeks, my hair was like grass that tickled my partner’s…

The Ghost of Proust in Mom’s Room Mileva Anasatasiadou __________ Proust doesn’t talk but he’s taking notes. He stares at Mom like she owns wisdom, and I stare at him, like he can teach me. He once had it all, then lost everything, then spent his days chasing after whatever…