Rachel Tanner

World Famous Shakes

I remember the floor. I remember the

lip of the raised-lid toilet in front of me & my nausea

trying to aim but my head rolling sidewaysforward with

no control

all adult of me

all 27-years-wrong of me

&

There’s nowhere safe when your body starts

hurting you so waiting it out always seems like

the only option.

My eyes are fluttering here from black again &

blur-opening on the dirty linoleum tile again &

I'm shaking again & I can't get my throat to shout again &

where is my cell phone again & am I even breathing again &

I don't know

what's happening again.

Rachel Tanner is an Alabamian writer whose work has appeared in Anti-Heroin Chic, The Atticus Review, Tenderness Yea, and elsewhere. She tweets @rickit.