The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Mother Wound by Gauri Awasthi

This feature, chosen by Guest Editor dez brown, is from Mother Wound by Gauri Awasthi (Trio House Press 2026).

Self-portrait with the Buck Moon

Modeling a dress, I witness
my own discomfort, in not wearing a bra.
The black jumpsuit, backless and strapless, leaves
my side boob completely exposed. I look
in the mirror as I tie my hair in a bun and pull out
the pearls that my mother gifted me, twisting
the tiny stoppers to my ear. I take a picture
in this glimmering light, feeling flattered –
what I haven’t felt so long in this body.

I send this photo to my lover
who texts sexy, instantly, and though we live
miles apart, I change out of my clothes
and think of his lover’s gaze, which I do not want.
But because he says he understands,
I tell him the photo wasn’t taken for you, it’s for me,
staring at the shape of my peeping breast.

For days, I fixate
on his gaze, and our love,
returning to google, out of habit.
This July moon is named for the full
growth of the antlers of male deer,
and now I question the walls of this poem,
my eyes, my words, my own
that fail me the most.

Gauri Awasthi (she/her) is an Indian writer who has received fellowships from Yaddo, the Hambidge Center, Hedgebrook, Djerassi, and SAFTA. She lives in New York City, where she edits, teaches creative writing, and makes films. Her poetry collection, Mother Wound, is forthcoming from Trio House Press in October 2026 and was on the Ms. Magazine list of the Best Poetry of 2025 and 2026.

dr. dez brown (they/he), publishing as dezireé a. brown, is a Black queer nonbinary and transmasculine Pushcart Prize–nominated poet and interdisciplinary scholar, born and raised in Flint, MI. Their debut collection of poetry, they/she/he: ritual to forget your (un)becoming, was the winner of the Joe W. Bratcher Prize and a finalist for the 2026 Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature. Often claiming to have been born with a poem written across his chest, he spends much of his time gaming and plays a mean hand of spades. Follow them online at @deziree.the.writer.