The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: local remdies by Chiagoziem Jideofor

This feature, chosen by Guest Editor Merrick Sloane, is from local remedies by Chiagoziem Jideofor (Host Publications 2026).

wild

    there should be a heavy influence of music here, yell out loud when you catch the vibe

i get off the bus with my head high
settled curls on my head mark me as the shit

i threaten my roommates with prank calls
our surreal love stinks up the whole apartment

we laugh over a bowl of rice
daily bread our lord provides in empty calories

i shower and sing with Beethoven
behind, i renege on my claim to not gorge on these exotic things

i am stuck home and dealing
the bastards upstairs are playing cards and yelling gringo at intervals

after a long day, my mouth releases contracted Os
too tired of faking it, i only dive after unsaid words

there are some soiled laundries to do
thousands of expletives for people asking me to speak louder

i rinse and dry my tongue, a nightly routine
a clean tongue communes directly with the heart

i say a frightening prayer and name my hell
she masquerades as a small town swallowing soldiers

i fall asleep only to see my neighbors
in a dream shooting—attacking this peace i can afford

there is no rest here
we’ve come shaped by the hardship at home

when i say beat me and then release me
fear the wild that has found home in me

Chiagoziem Jideofor (she/her) is Queer and Igbo. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Michigan Quarterly Review, South Carolina Review, berlin lit, The Lincoln Review, Passages North, Commonwealth’s adda, the minnesota review, Shō Poetry Journal, MAYDAY, and elsewhere. She earned an MFA from the University of Alabama and is currently a PhD student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Merrick Sloane (they/them) is a neuro-Queer 90’s kid and nonbinary poet, editor, and researcher from Oklahoma. A Best of the Net and AWP Intro Journal Awards Winner, Merrick holds an MFA from UT, Knoxville. Merrick’s work has received support from The DreamYard Project’s Rad(ical) Poetry Consortium and Poet’s House. A 2025 Garden Party Collective Neurodivergence / Intersectionality contest winner, Merrick’s poetry also appears in citizen trans* {project}, ANMLY, Seattle Journal for Social Justice, Fruitslice, Puerto del Sol, and elsewhere. They are Associate Poetry Editor of Doubleback Review. Merrick writes so that others may feel radically loved and is deeply committed to helping create a world that liberates us all.