The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: The Girl Who Talked to Paintings by Shannon K. Winston

This selection, chosen by guest editor Amber Alexander, is from The Girl Who Talked to Paintings by Shannon K. Winston, released by Glass Lyre Press in 2021.

Marbles V

I cherish their slow,
hesitant rolls

and wobbles
across the floor

the most.
It’s something

about their
deliberate

trajectory toward
an uncertain

destination
that reminds me

of myself.
Is this how

my mother felt,
watching me walk

for the first time?
One foot, then . . .

then the other.
Each step its own

miracle after all
those months

in the hospital.
Or did she feel only fear

as she whispered:
Will she make it

to the other side
of the room?

Shannon K. Winston’s book, The Girl Who Talked to Paintings (Glass Lyre Press), was published in 2021. Her individual poems have appeared in Bracken, Cider Press Review, On the Seawall, RHINO Poetry, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers and lives in Bloomington, IN.

Amber Alexander, who publishes creative work as e. holloway, is a poet based in Ohio. They currently work in higher education and as an Assistant Editor for Best Of The Net within Sundress Publications. Alexander is a former Editorial Intern for Sundress Publications, former Editorial Board Member for Cornfield Review, and was a Sundress Academy for The Arts Writing Resident in 2023. Their work has been published by Cornfield Review and earned multiple awards during undergrad at The Ohio State University.