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).

A Month Passes, Half of Another

Nurses and interns dodge my questions, tell me
to catch the chief neurologist on rounds. Timing
never right—my job, our toddler—I cannot camp
beside you. I track down the oracle whose words
might save us, find him at his desk, eating
a peach, no white jacket over polo and khakis.
He is astonished I still harbor hope.

Fully clothed, coat and shoes, I lie on the bed
we shared as a swath of sunlight inches
across me, its warmth withdrawing like a blanket
slipping off. A neighbor knocks, the phone rings
and rings, friends urging me to pick up. Eyes shut,
I hear but cannot respond or stir, suspended
like you, darling, between living and not.

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.