This feature, chosen by Guest Editor Ezra Fox, is from The Weather Inside by Stevie Edwards (University of Arkansas Press 2026).
Childless
A stranger’s pregnant belly
plops over elastic-waisted jeans,
and a wish kicks its legs
inside me. I wish it
would sit still.
Forest fires blaze
through Quebec, orange
smoke obscuring the sky
of the mid-Atlantic,
ushering in the new
normal: Tyger Tyger,
burning bright,
burning brush
and rushing through
subdivisions, making
ash out of loved lives.
Is delivering a child
into the smoldering of
the Anthropocene
an act of selfishness
or hope? Still, I want
to feel my breasts
milk-heavy,
like little wine bags.
When I hold
my friend’s tender
newborn, I pretend
she is my own—
journey out of her nursery
into the secret life
where I am a mother,
where the little spittle
on my shoulder
is my daughter’s
spittle, and therefore
made lovely. Her tiny fists
yank my loose hair
and pull me back
into the room
where I coo
and cuddle her
as her big eyes search
my face, saying nothing
of the coming dark.
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.
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