Amanda Chiado
Every woman displayed in the Museum of Ordinary Women left. Someone blamed the Mexican women in the big colorful skirts for starting the getaway song. Criminal magenta, fuchsia, saffron. The women holding the babies, of course, took ten months to unravel their sticky paint. The old women with blankets and wrinkles, shuffled. The flowers lured them. They stepped out from their square, and oval frames, gilded ones, and wooden, and even splintered ones. They followed each other toward the sky that shined like a chameleon’s kiss. Someone else blamed empathy. When the first man arrived at the Museum of Ordinary Women he opened the doors with his long toothy key. He realized all the women were gone. His jar of polish shattered. He called for back-up. All the men came running from their homes with their muddy boots and loaded pistols. They ran into the blushing sunrise, some screaming, “Who will protect you now?” The men looked up, like suckling babies, at the migrating birds, with wings like colorful skirts.
Amanda Chiado is a writer, poet, teacher, and arts advocate. She holds degrees from the University of New Mexico, California College of the Arts, and Grand Canyon University. Amanda won the Press 53 Poetry Award 2026 for her prose poetry collection, Today I Wear the Bear Head. Her poem “My Great-grandmother Had the Face of a Beast” was chosen by Diane Seuss for the Best Microfiction 2026. Amanda is also the author of the chapbook Prime Cuts (Bottlecap Press, 2025) and Vitiligod: The Ascension of Michael Jackson (Dancing Girl Press, 2016). Her poetry and fiction have been published in DMQ Review, The Account, Southeast Review, RHINO, and others. She is an alumna of the Community of Writers and the Highlights Foundation. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net. She is the Director of Arts Education at the San Benito County Arts Council, is a California Poet in the Schools, and edits for Jersey Devil Press. She’s passionate about birds, horror movies, ballet, magic, and laughter. She lives in Hollister, California, with her husband, son, daughter, and mother. Read more of her work at www.amandachiado.com.