The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: The Fault by Marcela Sulak

This feature, chosen by Guest Editor Ezra Fox, is from The Fault by Marcela Sulak (Black Lawrence Press 2024).

GRANTED

You,   said   the   wife to   the husband, are taking me for   granted. What,
answered the husband, would you prefer to be taken for? In the husband’s
pocket were a wine opener, a business card, and a piece of lint. I should
like very much to   be taken, replied   the wife,   after   combing   through
the   lemons, for   an   impertinence. The husband looked at the wife. The
husband took off  his sunglasses to better see her pupils. No, no, said the
wife. Now you are taking me for an aperture, and that is what got us into
this dark place to begin with. To illustrate, she listed all the times that
she, as an aperture, had had to illustrate. I did not realize, answered the
husband, that an aperture was so dutiful. The   husband walked twenty
paces and sat down. He began carefully to persuade some waves into a
harbor. Then he directed them to lap. Here, said the husband hopefully,
is an incipient setting for an impertinence.

Marcela Sulak (she/her) has authored five poetry collections, most recently, The Fault, and the National Jewish Book Awards Finalist, City of Skypapers (Black Lawrence Press, 2021). Her six translations of poetry collections from Czech, French, and Hebrew, have been recognized by PEN and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is managing editor of The Ilanot Review, and she directs the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing.

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.