This feature, chosen by Guest Editor EMDASH and Managing Editor Merrick Sloane, is from Lone Yellow Flower by Erika Gill (Querencia Press 2025).
Mouse Tea
My mother didn’t know how to love me
with enough affection
hugs too strong-armed
infrequent
so I fortified myself maternally
with dime store paperbacks
by women who wrote boldly
and pedantic
the women who wrote characters
not insecurities
magic but no nonsense
who taught me things
crime scene etiquette
(always wear the booties)
that you can make a tea so strong
a mouse might walk on it
that swords can be heavy
how to curse and mean it
that there are men who will chase after
smart and witty and brazen
that you can love so hard it’ll make you hurt
that you can break things
be broken
and keep a straight face through any insult
or wield your anger (and your tongue)
like a weapon.
Erika Gill (they/them) lives on unceded Tséstho’e (Cheyenne), Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, hinono’eino’ biito’owu’ (Arapaho), and Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) land in Denver. Erika is Editor in Chief of Alternative Milk Magazine. Their poetry appears in Rigorous, MORIA, beestung and others. Their debut collection of poetry, Lone Yellow Flower, is available now from Querencia Press.
EMDASH a.k.a Emily Lu Gao (高璐璐) (she/they) is a poet-who-also-writes-fiction, educator, and daughter of Chinese immigrants. She writes to heal, grow, and decolonize. They’ve received support from LAMBDA, McCormack Writing Center, Sundress Publications, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference, The Chinese American Museum of LA, Jersey City Arts Council and more. She has learned as much from community organizing and open mics as she did from her Rutgers-Newark MFA in Poetry. They’re published in Poetry Northwest, ANMLY, Alocasia, Underblong and elsewhere. She proudly hosted, produced, and curated The Word Bookstore Open Mic for two years.
Merrick Sloane (they/them) is a neuro-Queer 90’s kid and nonbinary poet, editor, and researcher from Oklahoma. They hold an MFA in creative writing from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and are Associate Poetry Editor of Doubleback Review. A 2026 Best of the Net and 2025 AWP Intro Journal Awards winner, Merrick’s poetry appears in citizen trans* {project}, Seattle Journal for Social Justice, Fruitslice, Puerto del Sol, and elsewhere. When they are not writing or editing, Merrick loves to serve as a pillow for their cat, Kitten, while getting lost in new worlds written by other dreamers. Merrick is deeply committed to helping create a world that liberates us all.
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