GHOSTLIT: An Excerpt
Eurydice, the seamstress who laced me
into those chutes of organza
shared her name with that gown.
Seasons have come & gone
since I tried Eurydice on & she became
no longer available. That is, on the web,
the designer replaced her
with another cut from a different cloth.
New Eurydice is leaner,
almost see-through in chiffon.
She has a slit up the thigh
to make some bride desired
& I want her. Look now
how my mouth can perform
a decent imitation
of some virgin’s smile.
I am not traditional.
I do not keep Eurydice
in our house.
After we exchanged vows,
we fed each other cake
but I ate all the flowers.
In photos from our wedding day,
I look puffed in whipped cream.
What can I say?
Eurydice was steam-pressed into a box
& I can never control myself.
“Eurydice, the seamstress who laced me” from Ghostlit. Copyright © 2025 by Theodora Ziolkowski. Reprinted with the permission of TRP: The University Press of SHSU, texasreviewpress.org.
About the Author
Theodora Ziolkowski is the author of a Next Generation Indie Book Award-winning novella, On the Rocks, and the poetry collection, Ghostlit. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in The Writer’s Chronicle, The Normal School, Short Fiction (UK), Prairie Schooner, No Tokens, Oxford Poetry (UK), and elsewhere. Currently, she teaches creative writing as an assistant professor of English at the University of Nebraska at Kearney and serves on the faculty of the University of Nebraska, Omaha MFA Program.
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