In an alternate universe this would be it for me. Poof, that fork in the road, that wholly unknowable life. Tough stuff. I live fantasy lives, star in unwritten screenplays: me as struggling actor, me as barista hottie, me as media sensation turned dynamic media sensation now with a rap career. A different kind of victim of the girlhood- to-hysteria pipeline. But there are always those real choices, those stone setters— the ones that change you and not the daydream. An oxygen mask that drops down, which the so-called kind gentlemen in this world will put on you once they’ve put on their own by which I mean choices so important someone will make them for you. And someone will say, I am one of the lucky ones but there are different struggles for me. Ultimately, I will be carried forward, even if by only one set of footsteps and not mine. No, I do not know why.
Selena Cotte is a poet and technology scholar living in Chicago and online. Her work has been published in journals such as Hobart, Sad Girl Review, Juked Online, and others. She’s @selenacotte wherever you think that may work.
Featured Artwork:
Flower Bath
Jane Turner Goldsmith is a writer and amateur photographer from South Australia. She has published a novel, Poinciana, set in New Caledonia and short-listed for a Commonwealth Prize, and short stories in various literary magazines including Overland, The Saltbush Review, and Echapbooks. She is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide, her subjects being The Essential Worker, Psychological First Aid, and the Composite Novel.