The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: Mixtape Venus by Dana Kinsey

This selection, chosen by guest editor Tierney Bailey, is from Mixtape Venus by Dana Kinsey, released by Iris G. Press in 2022.

Cicada Song

Romance melts to liquid I dab
		behind each ear
		a jasmine perfume

Stained-glass wings burst forth wiggling
		from split shells to take flight

Cicada chirp in swoony August daze
mating song on replay
		in summer steam

Females coyly resist alluring calls
		male tymbals buckle
		flex muscle

Maraca seduction trill & hum
louder faster til
	the clouds go numb

Lushness lulls in the trees
and I preen
	hearing my own love’s boldest melody

and I race to bending willows
through green-laid forest
	thick with souls

Legend says nymphs
consumed deep-fried cicadas
	to grant them immortality

& Yes, hope does crunch and drip
spiced and sweet from our lips
	we crave its flavor

They sing and sing and find
their mates and give and die and curl
	themselves deep under trees
	deep into roots

Dana Kinsey is an actor and teacher published in Fledgling Rag, Drunk Monkeys, ONE ART, On the Seawall, Sledgehammer Lit, West Trestle Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Viewless Wings, The Champagne Room, Hive, SWWIM, Wild Roof Journal, Prometheus Dreaming, and Prose Online. Dana’s play, WaterRise, was produced at the Gene Frankel Theatre. Her chapbook, Mixtape Venus, is published by I. Giraffe Press.

Tierney Bailey is a Libra, a lover of science fiction and poetry, and is a dice-collecting gremlin. Currently, Tierney is Associate Poetry Editor with Sundress Publications, a copyeditor at Strange Horizons, Associate Editor with PodCastle, and a freelance graphic designer. She has earned a BA from the University of Indianapolis and a Masters Degree in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College.