This selection, chosen by guest editor JJ Rowan, is from Orchid Alpha by Kimberly Southwick (Trembling Pillow Press 2023).
The Heart of the Matter
who can dispute the name of a thing, one thousand different
flowers reign, royalty of redeye morning. I, indica, oceanblue,
favor the clasp of a redwasp, the pulp of mudcones, the closed
slip of her when sky clouds over, the shadequeens, cardamom
bold, light sensitive tooth-builders. the rain, the rain, the puddles,
the rain. when you soak their wings in vinegar, when you mummify
their plastic cocoons, when the internet is mad about a sandwich, the heart
of the matter, the heart of the neverfrozen thing. the flies explode, buzzing
against the window. the see-through needle-eye spiders swing
from the hammock. the birds are gone when the seed is gone.
the purpleblack morning glories of Philadelphia are the purpleblue
morning glories of the South. cups for squash tears, the closed eyelids
of the pleated fence. the wasps are busy, watching over the garden.
the flowers sulk & bend their way around the wood like a limp hug.
Kimberly Ann Southwick is a poet and Assistant Professor in the English Department at Jacksonville State University in Alabama. She is the founder and editor in chief of the print literary-arts journal, Gigantic Sequins. Kimberly earned her PhD in English and Creative Writing from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2020. She is originally from South Jersey. 
JJ Rowan is a queer nonbinary poet and dancer whose writing and movement practices have developed largely out of collaborative approaches and the pursuit of deep connection. They are looking for the places where the written line and the lines of the moving body intersect, where genre blurs and remixes and reboots, and where style and role reach maximum fluidity and deeper capacity. Their chapbook, a simple verb, is available from Bloof Books. You can follow their handwriting and movement projects on Instagram.
