The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Ladies’ Abecedary by Arden Levine

Wardrobe Best Dressed 
This selection, chosen by Guest Leslie Rzeznik, is from Ladies' Abecedary by Arden Levine, released by Small Harbor Publishing in 2021.

S

sees cake, but nothing she wants to eat will fit in her mouth.
There’s a pretty dress, but her mouth is a frayed hemline.
There’s a durable pair of wings, but she won’t wear them.

It’s a soft spring day, and the dress can be a silken armor.
These are fine walls, and they race each other to the ceiling.
The drumbeats are distant and she feels them under her tongue.

There’s a pair of wings that someone stole and gave to her.
The drumbeats are approaching and her teeth ache.
It’s an edible autumn day, but she won’t bite down.

This is a fine chair, and its legs race each other to the floor.
It’s a mild winter day and her tongue is pinned under the chair.
This is a pretty dress and it can be a silken tourniquet.

“S” was previously published in Cream City Review as “The birthday girl”

Arden Levine’s debut chapbook, Ladies’ Abecedary (Harbor Editions, 2021), was included in CLMP’s 2022 Reading List for Women’s History Month. Her poems and other writing have appeared in American Life in Poetry (selected by Ted Kooser), Barrow Street, Harvard Review, The Missouri Review’s Poem-of-the-Week, Poetry Society of America’s Song Cycle series, WNYC’s Radiolab, and elsewhere. Arden is a reviews writer for Green Linden Press, a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, and a New York City municipal employee; her daily work focuses on housing affordability, homelessness prevention, and equitable community development.

Leslie Rzeznik lives in southeast Michigan. She earned her BA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan and won The Academy of American Poets prize in 2013. Her work has appeared in Alyss, Bone Bouquet, Sling Magazine, Willawaw Journal, and Bear River Review.

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