THE ANEMIC SAUSAGE - Zoé Mahfouz
The anemic sausage was struggling to climb out of her rectangular metal bin, held at a constant seventy-four degrees Fahrenheit, while the leaf blowers outside kept blowing.
Dehydrated, pasteurized, and reconstituted with water, the cloned eggs gazed down at her with their twenty-five-year shelf lives. The anemic sausage rolled past the thawed fruit cups dripping ice crystals, the shrimp soaking in deep-fried hydrogenated oil, and the hazardous spoon migrating from a nut-containing salad to a nut-free one, only to bump into the cleaning bucket marking the perimeter beside the flock of housekeepers gathered near the soured elevator.
The anemic sausage had high hopes. High hopes of avoiding the pigeon incident in Room 306 that had occurred the year before. The one that made all the ladybugs flee.
The leaf blowers were on her side. It was all down to her now. All down to her. She just had to—
An overheated kitchen employee caught up with the anemic sausage and put her back in the buffet.
Zoé Mahfouz is an award-winning French actress, content creator, screenwriter, and writer whose work spans fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. She holds a Master’s degree in Screenwriting from the London Film School. Her comedy screenplays have been recognized at international film festivals, including Canadian Screen Award-qualifying events. Her voice, described as “very tongue-in-cheek” and “kookie,” is reflected in work published in over 80 journals worldwide, with pieces translated and anthologized in Japanese print publications, notably Ginyu and The Asahi Shimbun. She is the author of ADHD in D Minor (North Meridian Press, 2026), which received a 5-star review from Reader Views, as well as the chapbooks Harper's Order (Black Sunflowers Poetry Press, 2026) and Borges Must Be Rolling in His Grave (Dancing Girl Press, 2025).