Her husband calls her moody, calls her hysterical, calls her off-the-rails. Tells her to calm down—blames it on her woman-ness. So she breaks herself into pieces, tucks each piece inside a pillbox, compartments labeled: Sadness. Fear. Disappointment. Fury. Each day she sets a timer, remembers to swallow them down.

Kelli Short Borges is a writer of essays, short stories and flash fiction. A former reading specialist in the Arizona public school system, Kelli is a life-long reading enthusiast. Her work has been published at The Tahoma Literary Review, The Citron Review, MoonPark Review, The Dribble Drabble Review, and Ghost Parachute, among other publications. Kelli is a 2022 Best of the Net and 2023 Best Microfictions nominee. She is currently working on her first novel.