This feature, chosen by Guest Editor Ezra Fox, is from The Weather Inside by Stevie Edwards (University of Arkansas Press 2026).
The Other Woman
Rotten stem of a girl. Snakes
for brains. I once was a siren
wrapped in garbage. No,
I was the garbage. I made a game
out of ruining: if I let
a spaghetti strap slip off
my shoulder, swirled my tongue
around a glass’s salted rim,
and unhinged the jaw
of my want, I could swallow
entire lives, how a woman pinned
all her happiness in the soft
heaven of her love’s beard.
I enjoyed hurting the women
I didn’t know, enjoyed knowing
my pile of flesh and grunts
could snatch the attention
of men away from the women
who called them home. Like
the woman who called
and called while the phone went
to voicemail, while I conjured
shivers up and down her beloved’s
muscled calves. I was good
at slithering and bad at sitting still.
I’m sorry. I didn’t understand loving
yet, didn’t know love could be bread
and blood, sugar and sky. Now I wait
for the other woman to arrive
and make a snack out of my joy.
I am waiting for her to
chew my sinew, to clean my bones
bare and teach me despair.
Dr. Stevie Edwards (she/they) is an Assistant Professor at Clemson University and Poetry Editor of The South Carolina Review. Stevie’s poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. She is the author of Quiet Armor (Northwestern University Press, 2023), Sadness Workshop (Button Poetry, 2018), Humanly (Small Doggies Press, 2015), and Good Grief (Write Bloody Publishing, 2012). Her next book, The Weather Inside, is forthcoming from the University of Arkansas Press in Spring 2026 as part of the Miller Williams Poetry Series edited by Patricia Smith. She holds a PhD from the University of North Texas and an MFA from Cornell University. Originally a Michigander, she now lives in South Carolina with her spouse and a small herd of rescue pitbulls. She is on the Editorial Board at SAFTA.
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. 
