Hemlock by Emilia Phillips

Emilia Phillips’ new chapbook Hemlock was my selection for the third week of my guest editing of The Wardrobe Best Dressed blog, which promotes a recent book by a woman or non-binary author every week. Phillips’ chapbook consists of only nine longish poems (about 30 pages total), but every one of them is dynamite. The writing is internal, but universal, like good poetry should be. There’s humor, energy, and deep restless energy. Buy here.

From “Ladyfingers”

does god have the hands 

of a man of books 

or the hands of a mason     smooth

or calloused would his 

fingers bleed if he 

played fiddle      these questions

don’t take into 

account other questions 

like is there even a god

From “Moonpie”

Some days I want to sit in my sadness 

like a parked car, engine still

hot but breathing, waiting for 

a song to end. But some never 

do. I suppose I’ll

die with someone else’s lyrics

on my lips . . .

From “Treading Water”

. . .

whole families walk

their slow legs

back in

against the rip

tide to the beach because it begins

to rain a light

rain they don’t want

to get wet salt stings

an eye but we don’t

call an eye

a wound . . .