Something Awful

by Jen Schneider

Sitting in the cell was awful. Even the AC didn’t help. 

I wanted to write a letter to Mama. Couldn’t find words. 

Five steps right. Six left. Four backwards. Again. 

Kind officers encouraged sleep. 

I lost a lot that night. Probably forever. Also became an accidental, unintended expert on things I wish I never knew….

•    Mixed Up Menus

•    Curfew Laws

•    Resisting Arrest

•    Consequences

•    Phone Calls of Shame

•    Strip Searches

•    Official Positions

•    Unofficial Positions

•    Temporary Tampons 

•    Hair with No Gel

•    Quiet

I’ll share what I learned. Except the strip search.

* * * * *

Jen Schneider is an educator, attorney, and writer. She lives, writes, and works in small spaces throughout Philadelphia. Her work appears in The Coil, The Popular Culture Studies Journal, unstamatic, Zingara Poetry Review, 42 Stories Anthology (forthcoming), Voices on the Move (forthcoming), Chaleur Magazine, LSE Review of Books, and other literary and scholarly journals.