a woman’s trash bag to goodwill

by Akshita Krishnan

after Mary Syzbist “Girls Overheard While Assembling a Puzzle”

that One dress (butter soft, Georgette,

Jezebel’s, and 15);  threaded together, 

Vanity Fair, a Guide on Losing

Weight in 50 Days (or, a slow

descent into stuffing/starving/

purging/measuring); Barbie dolls,

eyes blacked out with Sharpie

and costumes ripped to shreds; 

bottleneck vase, convexed, rotted

mulch stuffed inside; annotated copy

of On Earth, We’re Briefly Gorgeous,

made out to “a Girl who I’ll follow

everywhere;” rusted jhumkas that 

once belonged to a Mother; intricate

wedding China (blue flowers & curlicues)

with chipped edges; diary recollections

of years 9-13 ; and, the hollowed 

shell of my body curling around 

itself like a millipede.

Akshita Krishnan is a South Indian writer that splits her time between Texas and Massachusetts. An alumna of the Kenyon Young Writers’ Workshop, her works have been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, Eunoia, Bright Flash Literary Review, Girls Right the World, and more. When she’s not writing, she enjoys coke floats and struggles to solve Connections.