This selection, chosen by Guest Editor Maggie Rue Hess, is from Running Wild by Patricia McMillen (Finishing Line Press 2024).
Editor’s Note
I owe Esinam Bediako, Patricia ‘Ti’ McMillen, guest editor Maggie Rue Hess, and Sundress’s subscribers an apology. When I scheduled the posts of Ms. McMillen’s poems, I failed to update the author photo as usual. Ms. Bediako does not deserve to be incorrectly associated with another author’s work and Ms. McMillen deserves to be showcased accurately alongside her poems and receive the same recognition as our other featured authors. You deserve to see them respectively as such! The original and future posts have been corrected. I am deeply sorry for my error and hope that you are able to continue enjoying Ms. McMillen’s work.
Merrick Sloane, Managing Editor of The Wardrobe
Boy Crazy
If it wasn’t this one, copping
a feel beside the rusty
wheelbarrow in my father’s garage,
then that one, maybe, leaning in
for the kiss but first bending to pull
up socks that had slipped down
inside his shoes while I sat there
feeling foolish in too much lip gloss
on a stone bench behind the bowling alley
the weekend after Kennedy was shot.
Patricia “Ti” McMillen is a musician, clown, community activist, and retired lawyer, with publications in journalism, biography, fiction and poetry. Honors include an Illinois Arts Council poetry fellowship (2002), Pushcart Prize nomination (2002), Masters degree (English) from the University of Illinois at Chicago (2005), and publication in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Patricia’s first full length poetry collection, Running Wild, was published by Finishing Line Press (Georgetown, KY) in 2024, and her poetry chapbook, Knife Lake Anthology in 2006 by Pudding House Publications (Columbus, OH). Knife Lake Anthology is now out of print.
Patricia relocated in 2025 from her home state of Illinois to Northern California, where there is sadly little public transportation, though more than enough wine. Her web address is www.knifelakeworld.com, and she posts frequently on facebook, X, the New York Times (as ChicagoPoetLawyer), and various other places under various other pseudonyms.
Maggie Rue Hess (she/her) is a PhD student living in Knoxville, Tennessee, with her partner and their crusty white dog. She serves as Poetry Co-Editor for Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts. Her work has appeared in Rattle, Connecticut River Review, SWWIM, and other publications; her debut chapbook, The Bones That Map Us, was published by Belle Point Press in 2024. Maggie likes to share baked goods with friends and can be found on Instagram as @maggierue_.
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