Thank you, Samantha Micelli, for being disappointed in that necklace, but asking for the bra with the little pink bow like Marci had.

Thank you for standing in that liminal space between child and adult and telling us we had no say in our bodies changing into women, but did have choices about what that meant, how that looked. That our futures must make space enough to hold our pasts.

My parents saw me as Carol Seaver because I was smart and anxious with an asshole for a brother. Or sometimes as Jennifer Keaton because Family Ties took place in my hometown and we shared a first name.

But I saw myself as you, my piss and vinegar queen, my black-eyed goddess, my perfect ponytailed palimpsest.

Jennifer Schomburg Kanke, originally from Columbus, Ohio, lives in Tallahassee, Florida, where she edits confidential documents for the government. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in New Ohio Review, Prairie Schooner, and Pleiades. Her chapbook, Fine, Considering, about her experiences undergoing chemotherapy for ovarian cancer, is available from Rinky Dink Press. She serves as a reader for Emrys.