Mom and Dad each took a kid in the divorce. They flipped coins. Mom took me, Dad got my older sister Nancy.

Nancy and I missed telling dirty jokes, going to movies, and sharing secrets

So Nancy cut off a toe, with nail polish, mailed it to me at Mom’s. She painted WITH  LOVE, NAN in lavender polish.

I cut off a toe, hirsute with adolescence. Wrote WITH TRIPLE LOVE on it with Mom’s lipstick.

We got sent to boarding schools. Cut off our remaining toes.

We ran away, reunited. Wept. Hugged. At least we didn’t have to sacrifice fingers.

Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program in fiction. Yash’s work is forthcoming or has been published in WestWard Quarterly, Café Lit, and Ariel Chart, among others.