Nonfiction Issue #10: Women's Health April 22nd, 2022 April 22nd, 2022 Purple Pants by Jesseca Pirkle re you here through the night? We could really use your help!” I looked up from my phone and saw the head nurse standing in the doorway of the small hospital located in the slums of Faridabad, India where we worked. My tuk tuk had just arrived to take me home after a ten-hour workday when I looked at the nurse ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #10: Women's Health April 22nd, 2022 April 22nd, 2022 Fear of Infinity by Andrea Firth n the operating room, my husband sat stationed at the side of my head, a cloth barrier blocked our view. The first thing the doctor grabbed hold of was a foot, and in that moment, my husband stood up and snapped a photo of our daughter. She’s hanging in the balance. Her legs and torso are out of my ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #10: Women's Health April 22nd, 2022 April 22nd, 2022 Avuncular by Virginia Boudreau e tried to say afterward it was an “avuncular” hug. Hah! Well, I’m here to tell you it was anything but. I had to look up the word avuncular when I was copied on his reply to the medical inquiry panel. The dictionary said “uncle-like.” That’s not how I saw it, but I’ll allow you, the reader, to be the judge. My ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #10: Women's Health Mental Awareness Writing Contest Co-Winner April 22nd, 2022 April 22nd, 2022 Awakening by Jane Gabriel watched dust swirl in the sunlight shining through the sliding glass door; a beautiful Texas day. Wispy white clouds floated across a perfect blue sky. Spring and summer were my favorite seasons, and we had just moved from one to the other. My son was in his room and my daughter, Libby, lay on the couch, headphones ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #10: Women's Health April 22nd, 2022 April 22nd, 2022 Dr. Good Girl by Davy Ran like her,” he states approvingly, nails digging painfully into my shoulder. “She’s a good girl.” I flush in humiliation as my classmate makes worried, deliberate eye contact with me. Are you okay? their stare is asking. My body and my mind battle with each other to answer: NO!... Yes! I have to be! It’s not the first time this ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #10: Women's Health April 22nd, 2022 April 22nd, 2022 The Ocean, Hope and Getting Help by Emily Reicherts go to that Angel City to face my demons and lay claim to the person I lost. First time seeing the ocean and I know I’m home, caught up in the beauty, the water sliding back and forth on the sand. The water’s inhale as the tide pulls itself onto shore, and the exhale that pushes itself ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #10: Women's Health April 22nd, 2022 April 22nd, 2022 The Moment We Almost Had It All by Amanda ReCupido y husband and I like to joke that we almost had a threesome on a trip to Dublin. It’s a fun dinner party anecdote to playfully shock our friends, all open-minded people, but most in heterosexual monogamous relationships. “No!” they exclaim, and we beam with delight. In this moment we’re the adventurous ones, the uninhibited. ...
Read MoreNonfiction Issue #10: Women's Health April 22nd, 2022 April 22nd, 2022 Nothing Worth Splitting Hairs Over by Shelley Pernot remember the first time it happened. I was sixteen and it was advanced algebra class. It was our final exam, and I was struggling as usual. I’d never liked math. I looked down at the floor at the end of the period and there it was. A large pile of thick, curly, blond hair was lying innocently ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #10: Women's Health April 22nd, 2022 April 22nd, 2022 Promises Like Dolls by Jenna Jacobs hen I was seven I was promised motherhood with baby dolls. Hold them gently to your chest and don’t shake them awake and always love them no matter how much they may silently cry. When I lost my first pregnancy I was held up as a strong Goddess, carried by outstretched arms of close friends and further family. The ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #10: Women's Health April 22nd, 2022 April 22nd, 2022 A Sound Heart by Tajwar Taher hump-thump. Thump-thump. The sound of Isabel’s heartbeat, pulsing through the arch of an ear smashed down against her pillow, woke her up. Eyes blinking away fading sleep, she stretched her arm out towards the cold, other half of her bed. Her fingers curled around her phone. She brought it up to her face. 9:24 AM. She sighed. The girls were gone ...
Read More