The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: earthwork by Jill Khoury

This selection, chosen by guest editor JJ Rowan, is from earthwork by Jill Khoury (Switchback Books 2024).

hey mama let’s start over

I’ll be the turf
You be the nightmare
I’ll be the vetchling
You be the sweet
I’ll be the nomad
You be the spirit
I’ll be the cosmos
You be the aubade
I’ll be the limpid
You be the spin
I’ll be the razor
You be the hearth
I’ll be the sphere
You be the canopy
I’ll be the thief
You be the drill
I’ll be the control
You be the firmament
I’ll be the plot
You be the mother
I’ll be the south
You be the eye
I’ll be the blame
You be the doe
I’ll be the cairn
You be the portent
You be the veil
I’ll be the spine
You be the observer
I’ll be the harpy
You be the sod
I’ll be the goat
You be the gloss
I’ll be the heist
You be the cusp of winter

You be the war
I’ll be the flinch
You be the wheat
I’ll be the acid
You be the desert
I’ll be the horse
You be the switchblade
I’ll be the all-bad
You be the monsoon
I’ll be the early birth
You be the scorched earth
I’ll be the fire
You be the gravity
I’ll be the shed leaves
You be the moll
I’ll be the burr-hole
You be the experiment
I’ll be the acolyte
You be the scatter
I’ll be the moth
You be the clay
I’ll be the beam
You be the prize
I’ll be the forlorn
You be the absent
I’ll be the whim
I’ll be the stone
You be the nerves
I’ll be the fugitive
You be the vixen
I’ll be the scape
You be the goddess
I’ll be the ghost
You be the confessor
I’ll be the weather, turning

Jill Khoury (she/her) is a disabled poet and a Western Pennsylvania Writing Project fellow. She has taught poetry in high school, university, and enrichment settings. She holds an MFA from The Ohio State University and edits Rogue Agent, a journal of embodied poetry and art. Her poems have appeared in numerous venues, including Copper Nickel, VerseDaily, CALYX, and The Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day. Winner of the Gatewood Prize, her second full-length collection earthwork is available from Switchback Books. Connect with her at jillkhoury.com.

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.