work orders

by Naa Asheley Afua Adowaa Ashitey

Yesterday, I accidently tripped on that annoying part of the stairway that has now accumulated eight different work orders. A simple tile that just needs to be put back into place. Today, I almost tripped on that broken tile because a woman I had never met before was walking behind me and saw the braids underneath my scarf and whispered, “these dirty niggers.”

Photo of Naa Asheley Afua Adowaa Ashitey

BIO: Naa Asheley Afua Adowaa Ashitey (She/Her/Hers) is a Chicago-born writer and an MD-PhD Student at UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. She is interested in the intersection between scientific research, medicine and the humanities. Her works have been published or forthcoming in Hobart, The Brussels Review, JAKE, Abstract, The Inflectionist Review, Sage Cigarettes Magazine, and more. More at NaaAshitey.com. Connect with Naa on Twitter/Instagram: @foreverasheley and Bluesky: @foreverasheley.bsky.social.