This feature, chosen by Guest Editor Ezra Fox, is from Wolves in Shells by Kimberly Ann Priest (The University of Arkansas Press 2025).
Because Memory, I Am Told, Is Unreliable—
Lie, just a little, about the color of the grass, the quality of sky,
the air and whether it is breathable. For instance
that house across the street is not broken down yet,
its sockets retaining the same panes of glass it was born with
just like the eyes we keep forever if we can—aging,
but the same. Tell me it isn’t February and colder
than usual. Don’t explain to my soul beauty;
I don’t want to know. I want to believe that this small town
is a place I’d stay forever. That the men
smoking outside of the halfway house don’t scare me much—
or intrigue me some because I am also halfway.
That after years of being named the offender by my abuser
[the man from whom I’m still running], I’m not confused
concerning the snow falling today and whether
it is desirable for its whiteness and coolness on my face,
or if I am tired of its falling. I only know how long
I’ve been tumbling into grief and too many questions—
a disassociation from every present moment into an obscure past.
The house across the street invites workers for remodeling;
the coffee shop in town makes breakfast sandwiches I like.
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.
