The painkiller, dissolved in my stomach at 3:26 am,
is not working.
I am nothing
but a dark vagina and a stormy uterus.
I imagine – with sober hands, care, and dismay,
I dig the organs out of my body and throw them away.
I promise – tomorrow morning,
I will pick the apparatuses up and re-install them back into their slots.
I am still
the powerful girlfriend wearing perfect eyeliners and a skirt with polka dots.
Like Sisyphus,
I am waiting for the next cycle,
the unnoticed failure of the painkiller.
Melody Sun is a Chinese Canadian writer living in Vancouver. Born in China, she immigrated to Canada when she was fifteen years old. Melody graduated from The Simon Fraser University Writer’s Studio program in 2022. Her short stories have appeared in The Baltimore Review, The Fiddlehead, Collective Reflections, and 100 Stories: I am 1.5 Gen. Besides writing, Melody is passionate about reading, doing stand-up comedy, and (most importantly) smashing the patriarchy.