Shoshauna Shy

CONTACT:
Email: shoshaunashy@gmail.com
Website: PoetryJumpsOfftheShelf.com

BIO:
Shoshauna Shy is the founder of Woodrow Hall Editions and the Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf program.  One of her poems was selected for the Poetry 180 Library of Congress program launched by Billy Collins. Author of five collections, she is the recipient of two Outstanding Achievement Awards from the Wisconsin Library Association, and was a finalist for the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid poetry prize sponsored by Winning Writers. Her poetry has been studied in college classrooms, recited in church sermons, translated into Chinese, discussed by book clubs, made into videos, and produced on the backside of city buses. Not a monogamous writer, Shoshauna works on as many as 7-11 projects at a time. She is also an award-winning flash fiction author—but that's a whole ‘nother story!

PUBLICATIONS:
The Splash of Easy Laughter (Kelsay Books, 2017)
What the Postcard Didn't Say (Zelda Wilde Publishing, 2007), full-length collection
White Horses on Sale for a Song (Parallel Press, 2005)
Slide Into Light: Poems of the Brighter Moments (Moon Journal Press, 2001)
Souped-Up on the Must-Drive Syndrome (Pudding House Publications, 2000)

Poetry

I'm the Future Ex
Bill Meets in
Saratoga Springs

at a Citgo station.
I am still married
and neither of us suspects
I will become my husband’s ex,
then Bill’s live-in girlfriend.
Next I’m his almost-fiancee

till drunken hijinks
with his best friend
gets me pregnant.
As things go, I miscarry;
Bill forgives me; we get
back together; we break up.
This goes on for years

while he travels to Key West
and dates someone else’s wife.
Meanwhile, I give birth
to a couple of his kids;
we get a license;
we have a wedding,
but before I know it
all hell breaks loose

and I’m his ex, Bill’s very own ex.
I figured I was olly olly in free
but as Bill says, guy reaches 40,
he’s bound to have an ex;
maybe even two.
This makes for a handy excuse
when my successor, a pretty
wanna-be-Mrs named Alyssa
prepares to present her case.
Bill can shake his head

and damn if that’s not all it takes
for her to know she should get real
or get gone—It won’t get any better
than this.

First published by Stoneboat

The Best Way to Read Lorine Niedecker's Poems

First wander through Emerald Grove's antique store
amongst fishing nets and rusty kerosene lamps
for a spitbox in which to plant Queen Anne's lace.

Unpin dishtowels from a clothesline
and notice how the leaves
of the neighboring poplar
shimmy in the wind.

Enter a cabin that has been sitting empty
while its owners take a cross-country train
to New York.

With her book on your lap, cup the chin
of a cat as it sprawls beside you
on a windowsill, the breeze thick
with the scent of cherry blossoms.

Remember how your husband's former fiancée
whose pregnancy was terminated
asked to come visit, couldn't take her eyes
off your little boy.

First published by Wisconsin Academy Review