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.

Bake Off

Eve

Perhaps I should focus on the dough?
If we’re counting destruction, I win.
Shapeshifting demons get you every time.
Ever faced off with Satan?
Menace to mortal men everywhere
                                                           Lust.
                                                           Emotion.
                                                           Fixation.
I wasn’t making Adam happy.
That’s dramatic.
Well, he could have refused.
Speak for yourself.
Wisdom was my ultimate goal.
Knowledge intoxicates.
Beauty pales next to wisdom.
Rewind to your golden apple.
Discord preyed on your vanity.
I never really heard God say it.
Not the same.
Pinning everything on me is unfair.
I don’t claim to act on their behalf.
And yet here, today, you do.
Artists depict you naked.
Fascinating interpretation.
That’s never how I saw you.

Venus

     Last apple I touched started a war.
     Not sure winner is in your Wikipedia? 
     That snake was a formidable opponent.
     Please. Temptation is my M.O.
     They crave an ideal.
Devotion.
Passion.
Elation.
     So you plot the fall of humanity?
     Traumatic.
     Women like us are rarely refused.
     I’ve perfected seduction.
     Your ulterior goal.
     Yes, in beauty’s bed.
     Ask Adam if he’s sorry.
     Paris liked what I promised.
     God preyed on yours.
     Sure. It was relayed by your husband.
     Blaming the snake and the god?
     Mortal women bear your burden, darling.
     And inherit your skill for deception.
     Will anyone take me seriously in an apron?
     My fashion sense eludes them.
     I prefer not to be armless. Or crouching.
     You’re not a man.

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.