This feature, chosen by Guest Editor Ezra Fox, is from Wolves in Shells by Kimberly Ann Priest (The University of Arkansas Press 2025).
How to Forgive the Predator
All living things must eat.
The stomach is not impartial; neither
the soul. We survive
by what we do and do not nurture,
and sometimes this requires teeth.
I say to my son, Don’t incise
the soft part of your heart.
But he does,
creating a scar—each time toughening,
each time making the tissue
less susceptible to pain. When I got
divorced I learned quickly
that this is what made me desirable
for eating, having been broke down
by a mallet, my husband’s
hammering anger tenderizing me.
Having forgotten pain.
Having learned not to squeal
in a cage but continue to release
the lactic acid that keeps the slaughter
from spoiling. My son
teaches himself to forget pain too
in the same house, on the same street,
with the same sort of fleshly
cravings, a little indifference
to break down his appetite for love.
Kimberly Ann Priest (she/her) is a writer and visual artist whose book Wolves in Shells won the 2024 Backwaters Prize in Poetry from the University of Nebraska Press. She is the author of four full-length books of poetry and an assistant professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures at Michigan State University. Her poetry has appeared in Copper Nickel, Poetry Wales, Prairie Schooner, and Birmingham Poetry 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.
