A Tribute to Madam Z

by Louise Yeiser

The mysterious Madam Z doesn't know this, but she has been my new best friend ever since she wrote about her difficulty in simulating happiness when it would be so much easier to curse the world and shake her fist at the wind (a loose translation), but I would've added that I wanted to throw my ungrateful grown children in the garbage and mow my husband down in the driveway with the family car, but there is no need to go to extremes, since everyone gets the idea without being gross about it. Anyway, I swear that in real life Madam Z is my Creative Nonfiction teacher - well, probably not really - but I insist on pretending she is, maybe because it's fun to believe it so; which is, for all I know, the justification behind all beliefs, political and religious - well, probably not really. But it's a pretty nifty profound thought, as profound thoughts go. Or not. Anyway, if you took her piece here and substituted melted butter pecan ice cream for the spilled glass of wine, it would describe my January, February, and now possibly my March attitudes to a tee or a T or a tea, whichever you prefer, if it's really all that horrendously important to you in the grand scheme of things, which it might be. Or not.

6S

Louise Yeiser, author of The Boss, is a published writer and writing student at the University of Pittsburgh. She authors Sneak Peeks, edits A Good Look at Mastiffs and lives with her two cats and as many English Mastiffs as she can fit into her house.