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.

your name explodes like a ripe god in my mouth

the audacity of this god / to plant dandelions beneath your tongue
& call to the honeybees in the / clementine orchards:

these small boys, with bouquets / on their breath
crashing against the tides / of themselves;

these gentle buzzsaws, with / tangerine touch
crashing against the shores / of your teeth,

asking you your name—

you: copper watering can / left out in the rain
you: helium nectarine / & buttercup adjective

it’s all about those good / vibrations, baby
you feeling it? you / feeling it yet?

&: oh baby—

how they placed a plum / in a nuclear reactor
all nectar & heat & splitting / apart & called it easy,

the splitting apart—

called it by your name / all citrus love
& then buried it / in an orange grove:

all blood & earth & / mandarin bone
& god / how they ask the most gentle

hands to carry swords.

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