The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: Stained: An Anthology of Writing About Menstruation, Curated and Edited by Rachel Neve-Midbar & Jennifer Saunders

This selection, chosen by guest editor Amber Alexander, is from Stained: An Anthology of Writing About Menstruation, curated and edited by Rachel Neve-Midbar & Jennifer Saunders, released by Querencia Press in 2023.

Rose

by Amy Hsieh

I bleed liquid rose
into water—red,
slowly opening smoke.
Plumes of an old future.

Petals shed in my panties.

Having and losing
count of moons, small pearls
slipped
between fingers.
Night skies in the window
still framed for fairy tales.

My breasts grow cold,
an unpicked orchard.

Just how many names for Rose?

I zip up,
trying to grasp
a thinning bouquet
in my body.

Amy Hsieh lives in Ontario, Canada. She is a Taiwanese-Canadian, bi, neurodivergent writer recovering from post-concussion syndrome. Her poems have appeared in IHRAF Publishes, Watershed Review, Grain Magazine, Barrie Today, Devour: Art and Lit Canada, Acta Victoriana, Hart House Review, and The University College Review. She was the recipient of the 2021 Reinhilde Cammaert Memorial Writing Scholarship from Inkwell Workshops.

Poet, essayist, and translator Rachel Neve-Midbar‘s collection Salaam of Birds (Tebot Bach, 2020) was chosen by Dorothy Barresi for the Patricia Bibby First Book Prize. She is also the author of the chapbook What the Light Reveals (Tebot Bach, 2014), winner of The Clockwork Prize. Rachel’s work has appeared in journals such as Blackbird, Prairie Schooner, Grist, and The Georgia Review as well as other publications and anthologies. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Southern California where her research concerns menstruation in contemporary poetry.

Jennifer Saunders is the author of Self-Portrait with Housewife (Tebot Bach, 2019), winner of the 2017 Clockwise Chapbook Competition. Her work has appeared in The Georgia Review, Glass, Spillway, The Shallow Ends, Whale Road Review, and elsewhere, and has earned nominations for Best of the Net, The Pushcart Prize, and the Orison Anthology. Jennifer holds an MFA from Pacific University, and lives in German-speaking Switzerland.

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.