The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: & watch how easily the jaw sings of god by Ashley Cline

This selection, chosen by Guest Curator H.V. Cramond, is from & watch how easily the jaw sings of god by Ashley Cline, released by Glass Poetry Press in 2021.

hungry for orchids, or how your mouth blooms in august

consume me piecemeal / halve my body
like honeycrisp apples or something more holy
lonely lonely lonely, love, love me
reconstruct me at sea level & call it
a homecoming, teacup girl—
milk-drunk on orchids & starving
consume me piecemeal / splinter my bones
into tinderbox fledglings dressed up in
gossamer fur & call me wilderness call me
impossible call me we hurtle we hurtle
we hurtle we hurt, teacup girl—
bury your calcium howls here, beneath
the blueberries & halogen of my typewriter teeth
& consume me piecemeal / bring my hands
to your lips & watch how the earth builds
us a god we can call whole.

An avid introvert, full-time carbon-based life-form and aspiring himbo, Ashley Cline‘s poetry has appeared in 404 Ink, Okay Donkey, Wrongdoing Magazine, and HAD—among others. A Pushcart nominee and Best of the Net 2020 finalist, her debut chapbook & watch how easily the jaw sings of god is available now (Glass Poetry Press), while should the earth reclaim you (Bone & Ink Press) and cowabungaly yours at the end of the world (Gutslut Press) are forthcoming. Once, in the summer of 2019, she crowd-surfed an inflatable sword to Carly Rae Jepsen, and her best at all-you-can-eat sushi is 5 rolls in 11 minutes.

H.V. Cramond holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was the founding Poetry Editor of Requited Journal for 10 years. In 2018, she helped pass the Survivor’s Bill of Rights as the Illinois organizer for Rise. Recent work can be found in Soundless Poetry, Ignavia, death hums, Crack the Spine, BlazeVOX, Menacing Hedge, Adanna, So to Speak, Thank You for Swallowing, Dusie, Masque & Spectacle, Matter, and at https://hvcramond.com