This selection, chosen by guest editor Layla Lenhardt, is from Incidental Pollen by Ellen Austin-Li (Madville Publishing 2025).
content warning for self-harm
The Gauntlet
Once, our world was a field of undetonated mines
probable explosions when our feet swung over morning’s edge
Clods of mud raining stuck in the muck
Once, every mammal was predator fanged and clawed
We wrestled wild animals moved in slow-motion
each clash stopped
then replayed in technicolor splashes
Once, we carved our arms with sharp knives
Blood-scores: a tally of stripes to feed the deep hole in our souls
Earth People shake their heads don’t get the rattle
We had long since switched
water for Beaujolais Wild Turkey or bitter hops
Once, we called the magician behind the counter
Our Savior of the Corner Liquor Store
Our skin, once the ashtray of extinguished cigarettes
Cognac, elegant elixir Dexedrine, slimming smarts
Our bodies dwindled, our thoughts soared
Until they didn’t.
Once, we were the dregs, the drags, the dreaded.
Scraped dogshit from a shoe—
That was us, once
before we passed through the smoke-filled gauntlet
and pulled our aluminum folding chairs
into a circle.
Ellen Austin-Li‘s debut collection, Incidental Pollen—a 2023 Trio Award finalist, 2024 Wisconsin Poetry Series semi-finalist, and runner-up to the 2023 Arthur Smith Poetry Prize—is forthcoming (May 2025) from Madville Publishing. Finishing Line Press published her chapbooks Firefly and Lockdown: Scenes From Early in the Pandemic. Ellen is a Pushcart Prize & Best of the Net nominated poet whose work appears in many journals and anthologies, such as Salamander, One Art, The Maine Review, Lily Poetry Review, and Rust & Moth. SAFTA has supported her work. Ellen curates the monthly reading series Poetry Night at Sitwell’s in Cincinnati, where she shares an empty nest with her husband.
Layla Lenhardt is the author of the full-length poetry collection Mother Tongue (Main Street Rag 2023). She is an alumna of the Firefly Farms Residency and a member of the Sundress Reader Board. She is currently working on her second full length poetry collection Little Spoon, and she is an MFA candidate at IU.
- Sundress Reads: Review of My Arabic Breakfast - April 6, 2026
- The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Maybe the Body by Asa Drake - April 6, 2026
- Creative Writing Workshop at Ijams Nature Center - April 5, 2026