The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: How to Cut a Woman in Half by Janis Harrington

This selection, chosen by Managing Editor Krista Cox, is from How to Cut a Woman in Half by Janis Harrington (Able Muse Press 2022).

content warning for mention of suicide

Suicidal Ideation

Think of dark starlings, each a ringleader,
invading your hanging backyard feeder.
Magnets for their kind, they muster, rout
more timid species from seed and suet.
Fast and fertile breeders, they multiply,
a flock of hundreds swells to thousands.
Screeching and squawking rapacious hoodlums,
they give no quarter and sing no harmony,
waging war with incessant cacophony.
No calm, no détente; nonstop attack.
In waves, like bombers, they dive and peck.
Wing to wing, they block sun, moon, stars, finally

blot out all light, transforming noon to midnight.
No escape. A full eclipse of hope.

Janis Harrington is the author of How to Cut a Woman in Half (Able Muse Press, 2022), a Finalist for the Able Muse Book Award. Her first collection, Waiting for the Hurricane, was awarded the Lena Shull Book Award by the North Carolina Poetry Society. A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, she won the 2023 James Applewhite Poetry Contest. Her work has appeared in Tar River Poetry, Journal of the American Medical Association, North Carolina Literary Review and elsewhere. She lives in North Carolina where she co-hosts a monthly reading series for a local independent bookstore.

Krista Cox is Managing Editor of The Wardrobe, Doubleback Review, and Sundress Publications. She is growing her hair out again and reclaiming her childhood dreams.