After Maude Frizon's Over-the-Knee Boots

A woman walks into a bar and realizes she’s wearing the wrong century. Stodgy people don’t care who sees them in flats but she still remembers when you dressed up to fly. Pantyhose, pearls, a little bag for your girl things. Now the kids stash everything in the Cloud, which worries her, because what if it rains. Things happen, like hooking up at seventy or finding your missing part unscathed; where there’s fear there’s hope, also regret. Retired brides talk trash over booze but the good thing about monogamy is having a team to root for. Truth be told, she envies her own unfashionable shoes. If she dies, the last place anyone will look is the sky.









Autumn Stephens is a writer, editor, and poet. The author of the Wild Women book series and editor of two anthologies of women’s first-person essays, Autumn teaches private writing classes and leads writing groups for cancer survivors. She lives in an empty nest in Berkeley, California. Recreationally, she composes lists.

You can see more of her work in issues 4.4 and 50/50