Veronica Kornberg

Her Work

From the bone to the broth, the hidden
marrow of days leaching thin, from a wind-whack
of pie plates on bean and tomato vines,

from hand-sewn nights, threads knotted and bitten,
work of her hands, the kneading, the whipping
of cream for a cake, quick chop

of the knife, quick check down the list, scrape
of the chair as she rose, kiss on the hair,
swipe of cloth in the soft nick of the jaw,

until deep in the evening she finally sat with her cup
of Red Rose, feet puffy and propped on a kitchen stool,
the Trenton Times unread in her lap as we ciphered

our long division and the rule of the run-on sentence,
while stock thickened in the pot and the next day’s dough
swelled beneath flour sack towels and we settled, hungry
for the bread of her voice.

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Veronica Kornberg is a poet from Northern California. Recipient of the Morton Marcus Poetry Prize, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Salamander, New Ohio Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, The New Guard, #PoetsResist (Glass), Mom Egg Review, Spillway, Tar River Poetry, Crab Creek Review, Swwim Every Day and Meridian, among other journals. Find her at veronicakornberg.com or on Twitter @vkornberg.