Sylvia wanted an island. The farther she moved from Jeremy, the more she craved a spot with space all around it. Water would do. It would have to. The knife she said yes to was his knife, too, hell, it was his kid, and though she knew she was dreaming when she thought there’d be some kind of cake and candles and a diamond instead of that vacancy on his face and the cascading ring of his unanswered phone, still. Snip, snip. Why so sad. Just a simple procedure, life easier this way. And then there was one. Gimme an island.
is a writer, performer, and visual artist based in San Francisco. Selected publications: Allegro, Ascent, Bayou, Event, Helicon Nine, The Lake, Rabbit, Sonora Review, and Zone 3. Her story “Betty Crocker’s Unwritten Rules” is forthcoming in Flash Nonfiction Food. Tzena received an Avery Hopwood Award in Poetry and a Creative Artist grant from the Michigan Council for the Arts. She has been a Cranbrook Fiction Scholar and featured performer at the Austin International Poetry Festival and on Michigan Public Radio.
