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.

Woman Climbs Statue of Liberty in Protest

Therese Patricia Okoumou, Guilty of Trespassing, 2018

She said, I climb to protest our nation’s “zero
tolerance” immigration policy. She said, I climb
to abolish ICE. They said, trespasser. They said,
disorderly conduct. When she sat on the skirts
of Lady Liberty, we watched them climb
after her. They said, get down. Our hero
said, I’m not discouraged. She made her bed.
And we watched and cheered and put a curse
on those who wanted to arrest her
for protesting putting children into cages.
Oh yes, we witches watched her carry our truth
up and over that ledge like a beautiful sooth-
sayer, strong and lithe. Goodbye Dark Ages.
We climb with her. We climb with her.

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.