This feature, chosen by Guest Editor Ezra Fox, is from Wolves in Shells by Kimberly Ann Priest (The University of Arkansas Press 2025).
I Wanted to be a Boy
because I want to be a wolf; because the earth smells
of sinew and green. Because his hair was made of corn dust
and cloud, and I wanted to weave it around me, trust
his sky. Because Eros did not strike my thigh or breast;
instead he plunged knives into my chest and kept the heart
beating. Because lunge is so similar to lung, both
attempting a breath. Because I was breathing
when my mother bore me, and this was written down
on a chart next to the names of other living things—
and some of them were masculine; because this was not
a female breath. Because it took years to tame my teeth,
and still I try to use them; because they are pretty. Because
I feel like thunder often, dance like snow; because
I am living. Because his arms were made of roots,
and I wanted to trust cultivation. Because the sky tastes
of lilac and honey; because I am breathing because its wound
has made more room inside my chest. Because I lunged
when hungry and almost used my teeth; because
a body seems heavier after it’s dead, even though it isn’t.
You can heft its corpse anywhere without cooperation
if you have the stamina. If you’re big and strong enough.
Kimberly Ann Priest (she/her) is a writer and photographer whose book Wolves in Shells won the 2024 Backwaters Prize in Poetry from the University of Nebraska Press. She is also the author of tether & lung (Texas Review Press) and Slaughter the One Bird (Sundress Publications). An assistant professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures at Michigan State University, her poetry has appeared in Copper Nickel, Poetry Wales, and Chicago Quarterly Review.
Ezra Fox (they/he) is a Best of the Net nominee who lives and writes in San Francisco, CA and holds an MFA from Indiana University. A Breadloaf, Tin House, and Lambda Literary Fellow, and recipient of the Lili Elbe Memorial Scholarship, which recognizes transgender writers of exceptional promise, their work appears or is forthcoming in TriQuarterly, The Pinch, Fourteen Hills, Interim, and elsewhere. Additionally, they won the 2025 West Trade Review Poetry Prize, and currently serve as assistant judge of the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. Apart from writing, Ezra maintains a daily practice of reconnecting with their inner child: roller-skating, playing drums, and enjoying animated films and theme parks. In quieter moments, they can be found sharing cups of tea and sweet treats with their beloveds. Learn more about Ezra at ezrafox.net or on Instagram @ezraxfox.
