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.

Pillow

Your eyes stay closed 
Not sure you’re asleep
I shudder 
running the dailies

Carousel horses the night you proposed 
High-fiving as her ball finds the net 
Whizzing by you on my burgundy bike

Nostalgia pulls my fingers 
I fancy tattooing my name then yours
pressing the needle deep enough

I study your torso 
Stranded in starless midnight 
An unexpected breath or caress

Pretending you’re asleep 
These blackout shades are efficient 
Your breathing lush and rhythmic

Talk

I’ll close mine too 
but it’s clear I dream 
blankets stolen
from days long past

The letters you closed “Maybe Someday” 
A turquoise dress that made you sigh 
Your laugh as I read Curious George

to your spine but they hover indecisive
in five-inch script separated by a minus sign
so you’ll turn to me to stop the pain

ravines too treacherous to navigate 
I map out a path to your lips
could cover me in morning

is the kindest lie you’ve told 
it’s been night for far too long
weary lullaby on constant replay

				          Peeling myself from our bed
						          I sleepwalk through the halls
								          touching each photo like a ghost 
									          Skirting the creaky floorboard
												          and the rousing truth

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.