Department Store of Futures

In Department Store of Futures, Lauren Garland crafts a lyrical exploration of longing, fertility, and the nuanced ache of loss. Through a kaleidoscope of imagined and remembered spaces, Garland’s poems invite readers to journey alongside a speaker contemplating potential futures amidst the raw realities of pregnancy and infertility. These reflections blend with visions of places both tangible and ephemeral-homes left behind, the haunting allure of art, or moments relived in memory-all interconnected by the speaker’s attempt to project and reconcile her hopes. With striking imagery, Garland blurs the boundaries between grief and expectation, grounding universal questions in intimate, sharply observed details.