Category: Wardrobe Best Dressed

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Lone Yellow Flower by Erika Gill

This feature, chosen by Guest Editor EMDASH and Managing Editor Merrick Sloane, is from Lone Yellow Flower by Erika Gill (Querencia Press 2025).

Field Log: Denver, 10 May

By the tenth of May the Denver trees
have begun to bloom and leaf
and it is green. So green I laugh, elated.
Some things I have seen:
flowers of six shades,
an alien—poppy in bloom, translucent
hairs cover the stalk and pod,
its neighboring flower a violent red,
a swarm of black flies,
bearded irises proud spikes thrust into the air,
a beetle on its back.
Someone (I dislike) has written “fuck earth”
on the pavement and had it been me
it would have said “fuck, Earth”
reverently, the way lovers do.

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.

Photo Credit: Juan Camillo Garza

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.


The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Lone Yellow Flower by Erika Gill

This feature, chosen by Guest Editor EMDASH and Managing Editor Merrick Sloane, is from Lone Yellow Flower by Erika Gill (Querencia Press 2025).

When we are all drowning

When we are all drowning
these tasks will cease to matter
submerged
dissolved into acidic slurry
and I will miss sliding my fingers
along your hair and the clean sky.

When we are all asphyxiated
I will no longer care to look in mirrors
your empty pockets immaterial
I’ll have plucked the final leaf
from the last wilting plant
as it returns to the earth.

She is calling us
ringing a dinner bell, a klaxon
inaudible
if they have their way
our bodies will never stop moving
never to alight gently
one last petal, to rest.

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.

Photo Credit: Juan Camillo Garza

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.


The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Lone Yellow Flower by Erika Gill

This feature, chosen by Guest Editor EMDASH and Managing Editor Merrick Sloane, is from Lone Yellow Flower by Erika Gill (Querencia Press 2025).

The Rats of Notre Dame

Squeaks and scampers
accompany the night music of the cathedral
exhausted from the weekend trample
of thousands of tourist feet

Gray bodies skitter
sleek through the night
and I try not to sigh again and contain
in my chest the outburst forming
like a storm cloud accumulates

He tells me in words accented that allure me
that there are few stray cats in Paris
but points out Jupiter (or maybe Saturn)
and shows me how to tell by the steadiness of light
if we are looking at a star or planet

I always assume they are airplanes, I say
and sip from my bottle of water, not wine
and wish we had spent each night of the past week
wandering together along the Seine



the water a glossy satin ribbon in the dark
beckons me to descend the stone steps
in the quai and surrender my body to
the embrace of an ancient city

the ache of three hours walking on cobbles
didn’t diminish my desire to stay
the petulant sadness of soon-coming departure
dug claws into my chest and pricked my eyes

I looked so hard at the Haussmann architecture
gilded softly in the mellow amber of streetlights
I thought I might crack the stone
and with each inhale I hoped my lungs would retain
the mass of non-oxygen molecules and become heavy,
immovable

He would probably point out that such a thing would be fatal
and I would agree, inclined to be maudlin and absurd
this final midnight in my own placid, unintelligible heaven

Paris loved me back, maybe he would not have
and maybe it is best that I wasn’t impulsive and foolish
and didn’t try to stay



but my pulse warmed my veins
as he kissed me solemnly on each cheek
and then was gone

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.

Photo Credit: Juan Camillo Garza

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.


The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Lone Yellow Flower by Erika Gill

This feature, chosen by Guest Editor EMDASH and Managing Editor Merrick Sloane, is from Lone Yellow Flower by Erika Gill (Querencia Press 2025).

Romantic Notions

Funny, that it is considered romantic to declare
that you would die for love.
Living for love is much harder to do.

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.

Photo Credit: Juan Camillo Garza

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.


The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Lone Yellow Flower by Erika Gill

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.

Photo Credit: Juan Camillo Garza

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.


The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: All Water Has Perfect Memory by Nada Samih-Rotondo

This feature, chosen by Guest Editor EMDASH, is an excerpt from All Water Has Perfect Memory by Nada Samih-Rotondo (Jaded Ibis Press 2023).

                     LEARNING TO SWIM

                                  The water, All of the time

    Tayali,  Binti  the  waters  whisper.  Come, my  daughter.
    I  teach  my  children  to  respect  the water;  never fear it.
One moment, you might be jumping waves in a comfortable



rhythm and in the next, a fierce wave could drag you under,
take you off guard.
    “Don’t  fear   hitting  the  bottom,”  I  tell  them.  “It  gives
you something to propel from.”

                                                    …

    Yalla,  Tayali, Yafa’s waters  call. I feel her urgent tugging
in the tides of my body, my limbs  inching  toward  the shore
like a magnet.
    Soon, I tell her. I’ll be back soon.

Nada (she/her) is a multi-genre Palestinian writer, educator, and mother deeply attuned to her adopted land’s stories. A refugee English language learner, Nada grew up deeply impacted by family separation and state violence both in Palestine and on Narragansett land or so called Rhode Island. As a working class caretaker, Nada aims to create innovative, anti-imperialist works of literature that play at the intersections of the more than human world, expands imaginations, illuminates connections between land and body, and inspires joyful resistance. Her writing has appeared in Masters Review, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, and others. All Water Has Perfect Memory, a multigenerational hybrid memoir, is her first book.

Photo Credit: Juan Camillo Garza

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.


The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: All Water Has Perfect Memory by Nada Samih-Rotondo

This feature, chosen by Guest Editor EMDASH, is an excerpt from All Water Has Perfect Memory by Nada Samih-Rotondo (Jaded Ibis Press 2023).

                              NEW WORLD

                               Johnston, Rhode Island 2001

    My full  name  is Nada  Tayser  Mohamed-Samih  Jaber,  I
wanted to scream. How many white people have a  name like
that?
    Later,  I  attended  that  professor’s  office  hours to  hand in
the final assignment.
    “Oh,  I wanted to tell  you,” she said  excitedly,  “I  teach this
same  class  at   Providence  College, and a  group  of  students
there said the same thing as you. They are from Egypt. I guess
you’re not white after  all,”  she  concluded, beaming  with  the
arrogance of discovering land long settled.

Nada (she/her) is a multi-genre Palestinian writer, educator, and mother deeply attuned to her adopted land’s stories. A refugee English language learner, Nada grew up deeply impacted by family separation and state violence both in Palestine and on Narragansett land or so called Rhode Island. As a working class caretaker, Nada aims to create innovative, anti-imperialist works of literature that play at the intersections of the more than human world, expands imaginations, illuminates connections between land and body, and inspires joyful resistance. Her writing has appeared in Masters Review, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, and others. All Water Has Perfect Memory, a multigenerational hybrid memoir, is her first book.

Photo Credit: Juan Camillo Garza

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.


The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: All Water Has Perfect Memory by Nada Samih-Rotondo

This feature, chosen by Guest Editor EMDASH, is an excerpt from All Water Has Perfect Memory by Nada Samih-Rotondo (Jaded Ibis Press 2023).

                              COLORATURA

                                 Johnston, Rhode Island 2002

    Some of us  need to parent  ourselves,  I’d often  tell  myself.
I  fixed my  face into  the  picture  of  perfect   composure,  and
pretended I didn’t know what I was capable of. A good actress.

Nada (she/her) is a multi-genre Palestinian writer, educator, and mother deeply attuned to her adopted land’s stories. A refugee English language learner, Nada grew up deeply impacted by family separation and state violence both in Palestine and on Narragansett land or so called Rhode Island. As a working class caretaker, Nada aims to create innovative, anti-imperialist works of literature that play at the intersections of the more than human world, expands imaginations, illuminates connections between land and body, and inspires joyful resistance. Her writing has appeared in Masters Review, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, and others. All Water Has Perfect Memory, a multigenerational hybrid memoir, is her first book.

Photo Credit: Juan Camillo Garza

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.


The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: All Water Has Perfect Memory by Nada Samih-Rotondo

This feature, chosen by Guest Editor EMDASH, is an excerpt from All Water Has Perfect Memory by Nada Samih-Rotondo (Jaded Ibis Press 2023).

                            SILENT PERIOD

                                          Rhode Island, 1990

    My  body  is drawn to bodies of water. I was born  in Kuwait
City,  minutes  from  the  shores of  the  Persian  Gulf.  For  six
summers I waded in the waters of the Persian  Gulf,  the same
waters  my grandfather  fished after leaving Palestine to settle
in  Kuwait.  He had  a boat he would take  out in  the  morning
with  his  brothers, returning in the  evening with piles of slip-
pery fish. My grandmother gutted, cleaned, dressed, and fried
or  roasted  this  gift  from  the sea for the family.  My  mother
and  her  siblings  were  born  and  raised  along  those shores,
but  were  never  granted  Kuwaiti  citizenship: a coveted prize
rarely   awarded  to descendants  of  the Palestinian  diaspora.
Nevertheless,  Kuwait  was home  to  my  family,  as  it  was  to
400,000 other Palestinians.
    At  age  six I ended up  in the  United  States,  specifically  in
Rhode  Island,  aptly  nicknamed  the  Ocean  State.  I’ve spent
the  last thirty years  inhaling the salty  Atlantic, the tips of my
fingers pruned, my curly hair matted and waterlogged. I  grew
up   wide-eyed  and  feral,  stomping  along  muddy riverbanks
barely  recovered  from  industrial  ravage.  But  it was  always
the  Mediterranean—the  turquoise  shores  of  Yafa—that  my
blood ebbed toward.

Nada (she/her) is a multi-genre Palestinian writer, educator, and mother deeply attuned to her adopted land’s stories. A refugee English language learner, Nada grew up deeply impacted by family separation and state violence both in Palestine and on Narragansett land or so called Rhode Island. As a working class caretaker, Nada aims to create innovative, anti-imperialist works of literature that play at the intersections of the more than human world, expands imaginations, illuminates connections between land and body, and inspires joyful resistance. Her writing has appeared in Masters Review, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, and others. All Water Has Perfect Memory, a multigenerational hybrid memoir, is her first book.

Photo Credit: Juan Camillo Garza

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.


The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: All Water Has Perfect Memory by Nada Samih-Rotondo

This feature, chosen by Guest Editor EMDASH, is an excerpt from All Water Has Perfect Memory by Nada Samih-Rotondo (Jaded Ibis Press 2023).

                                    MERCY

                                        Yafa, Palestine 1920

Til-yat-ruh-he is an Arabic phrase meaning “my soul rose up,”
describing  an  experience  so  troubling  that your soul almost
leaves   your  body.  I’ve heard  my  mother  say  til-yat-ruh-he
when referencing something being strenuous, painful, or even
boring  if  she  was  being  ironic. I also heard her describe her
experience of birthing me this way.

Nada (she/her) is a multi-genre Palestinian writer, educator, and mother deeply attuned to her adopted land’s stories. A refugee English language learner, Nada grew up deeply impacted by family separation and state violence both in Palestine and on Narragansett land or so called Rhode Island. As a working class caretaker, Nada aims to create innovative, anti-imperialist works of literature that play at the intersections of the more than human world, expands imaginations, illuminates connections between land and body, and inspires joyful resistance. Her writing has appeared in Masters Review, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, and others. All Water Has Perfect Memory, a multigenerational hybrid memoir, is her first book.

Photo Credit: Juan Camillo Garza

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.