The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: The Commonplace Misfortunes of Everyday Plants by Renee Emerson

This selection, chosen by guest editor Kenli Doss, is from The Commonplace Misfortunes of Everyday Plans by Renee Emerson (Belle Point Press 2023).

Ode to the Daffodil

You confront me, rising arrogantly
at the first of March alongside every path
and in and out of gardens. Tufts of green
threatening flower, I have nothing new
to tell you. Never once did I set a bulb
going, pocketed in the earth. I have waited
an entire winter to only know more winter.
Yellow lanterns, clusters of bright faces,
fist-clenched constellations, I’ll see you
dusted with snow I’m sure next Thursday.
I’ll see you bow your heads in despair
as I’ve bowed mine to pray for life
to spring up once more from the lonely dirt.

Renee Emerson is the author of the poetry collections Keeping Me Still (Winter Goose Publishing 2014), Threshing Floor (Jacar Press 2016), and Church Ladies (Fernwood Press 2022). She is also the author of the middle grade novel Why Silas Miller Must Learn to Ride a Bike (Wintergoose Publishing 2022). She lives in the Midwest with her husband and children.

Kenli Doss holds a BA in English and a BA in Theatre-Performance from Jacksonville State University. She is a freelance writer and actress based out of Alabama, and she spends her free time painting scenes from nature or writing poetry for her mom. Ken’s works appear in Something Else (a JSU literary arts journal), Bonemilk II by Gutslut Press, Snowflake Magazine, The Shakespeare Project’s Romeo and Juliet Study Guide and A Midsummer Night’s Dream Study Guide, and The White Cresset Arts Journal.