The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: "Twenty-Something" by Tatiana Ryckman

“Fellatio”

Sometimes I say stupid things, and I want to cover my naked body with a clear plastic sheet, like a tight shower curtain, so my breath will fog it up around my face. And when I’m found, molding and slowly suffocated, words like disgrace will be used to describe me. This is how I felt when I forgot the word “fellatio” in a taco joint in the north part of town. I said, stupidly, “Isn’t that a boy’s name?” And then I wanted to die.

This selection comes from Tatiana Ryckman’s short fiction collection Twenty-Something, available now from ELJ Publications. Purchase your copy here.

Tatiana Ryckman was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She is the author of two prose chapbooks, Twenty-Something, and VHS and Why it’s Hard to Live, and is Assistant Editor at sunnyoutside press. More at Tatianaryckman.com.

Beth Couture currently serves as both a Board Member and an Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications. Her work can be found in a number of journals and anthologies, including Gargoyle, Drunken Boat, The Southeast Review, Ragazine, and Thirty Under Thirty from Starcherone Books. Her novella, Women Born with Fur, was published by Jaded Ibis Press in 2014 as part of its Blue Bustard Novellas series. She is currently working on her Master’s in Social Work at Bryn Mawr College, and she lives in West Philly with her husband and five cats.