The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: Her Kind by Cindy Veach

This selection, chosen by guest editor Katie Manning, is from 
Her Kind by Cindy Veach, released by CavanKerry Press in 2021.

I, Witch

So what if I woke up changed it’s not like I’m a wild hog 
or some Evill thing          not a Reall hog 
that follows you home         Jumps into the window 
a Munky with Cocks feete w’th Claws       don’t believe 
what my Accuser says       or believe it
the fact is       my divorce attorney’s building
sits on the site of the prison    where they kept the Accused 
in Chaines      in 1692      I came there with a silk scarf 
worn loosely    at the neck    borders looped 
with colored thread     he came   with daisies   dark
chocolate      and proclaimed 
my wife came towards me and found fault with me 
downstairs   in the dungeon   they chained us to the walls 
to keep our spirits from escaping    in the Liknes of a bird

Cindy Veach is the author of Her Kind (CavanKerry Press) a finalist for the 2022 Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal and an IPPY Silver Medalist in poetry, Gloved Against Blood (CavanKerry Press), a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and a Massachusetts Center for the Book ‘Must Read,’ and the chapbook, Innocents (Nixes Mate). Her poems have appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, AGNI, Michigan Quarterly Review, Poet Lore, North American Review, Salamander and elsewhere. Cindy is the recipient of the Philip Booth Poetry Prize and the Samuel Allen Washington Prize. She is poetry co-editor of MER.

Katie Manning is the author of Hereverent (Agape Editions), Tasty Other (winner of the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award), and six chapbook collections, including How to Play (Louisiana Literature Press) and 28,065 Nights (River Glass Books). Her poem “What to Expect” was featured on the Poetry Unbound podcast, and her poems have appeared in HAD, Poet Lore, SWWIM, Stirring, Thimble, Verse Daily, and many other venues. Katie is the founder and editor-in-chief of Whale Road Review and a professor of writing at Point Loma Nazarene University.