metaphysics celebrity worship when to arrive at a party fashion trends the point of gambling dark matter how to look a stranger in the eye who decides when a war is over and who decides it’s begun in the first place how to take an outfit from day to night and what is the point of doing so in the first place the allure of hallucinogens the logistics of polyamory the age and size of the universe imaginary numbers cryptocurrency my gender a consistent self artificial intelligence data science molecular biology calculus i don’t understand how to walk in heels how to conjugate latin why people commit cruelties i know what photosynthesis is but i don’t understand it then i too would eat light i don’t understand radioactive decay the augur effect my gender i don’t understand game theory string theory astrophysics i don’t understand what i don’t know that i don’t know which is most things my gender apoptosis symbolic interactionism how dreams work modern art how to invest money computer viruses internet algorithms the value of stocks of gold of life electromagnetism email etiquette my astrological chart why i haven’t replied to that text why i never cry at movies how to make friends how to be good what a siren would sing to seduce me

Shaelin Bishop (they/she) lives and writes on unceded Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh land. Their work has appeared in The Fiddlehead, The Ex-Puritan, The Common, Room, CAROUSEL, Plenitude, PRISM International, The New Quarterly, Augur. and elsewhere, and has been nominated for the Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize anthologies. They were longlisted for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize.

Shaelin’s previous pieces: Daughter of a King (Issue 69) and After Hours (Issue 70)