The She: An Exposé

THE SHE: AN EXPOSE by Melanie Flores
Raw, unflinching, and deeply human, THE SHE: AN EXPOSE peels back the layers of womanhood to reveal the wounds, triumphs, and quiet evolutions that shape us. In her debut chapbook, Melanie Flores writes with the grit of memory and the tenderness of survival, crafting poems that move from the sunlit nostalgia of childhood to the shadowed corridors of grief, loss, and self-reclamation.
These poems are not polite. They do not blink in the face of violence, heartbreak, or the silent ache of motherhood. Flores traces the contours of generational pain-daughters, mothers, grandmothers-each voice braided with longing and resilience. In "I Remember Cherries," a bowl of summer fruit explodes into a scene of domestic violence, while "One Daughter's Mother" traces the slow, irreversible loss to cancer, each stage marked by a mother's demand, a daughter's memory. The body, both as vessel and battleground, is ever-present-miscarriage, aging, the struggle for self-definition in a world eager to slap on labels.
Flores isn't afraid to get messy. Her language shifts from stark to lush, sometimes playful, sometimes devastatingly direct. There's no easy resolution in these pages-only the relentless honesty of a woman taking back her story, one poem at a time. We meet wolves gone mild, shattered Cinderellas, and shadow daughters-each character a reflection of the poet's own journey toward what it means to be whole.
THE SHE: AN EXPOSE is for anyone who has ever felt invisible, labeled, or erased. It's for mothers and daughters, survivors and seekers, and for anyone willing to sit with the uncomfortable truths that lurk behind closed doors. Flores offers no platitudes, only the hard-won reminder that to choose to be free is itself an act of rebellion.
Why You'll Love It: Unfiltered, intimate poems that examine the price and power of being a womanStories of generational trauma, resilience, and the complexity of loveA fearless voice that cuts through silence, stigma, and shameAccessible yet profound-perfect for fans of Sharon Olds, Kim Addonizio, and the confessional traditionOrder your copy of THE SHE: AN EXPOSE today, and discover poetry that dares to speak the unspeakable-then shows us how to survive it.