This is how I learned
to love
words traced on my back
letter by letter
fingertip language of my sisters
the body a book
the body an ear
an amphora filling
a slate wiped clean
first an L—the quick plunge
then plank at the waistband
an O—bumping over
the shoulder blade
was it LONG?
was it LOW?
was it LOOP?
make it LOVE
I begged
for the sweep of their hands
on the blade of my back
it was LOVELY
–
Veronica Kornberg is a poet based in Pescadero, on the central coast of California. Recipient of the 2018 Morton Marcus Poetry Prize, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, Radar Poetry, phren-z, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Mom Egg Review, and Catamaran, among others.