Veronica Kornberg
Seeds
Sleek and fat
they hunkered
in the ribs
of their husk canoes.
In hulls they
floated
woozy on brown stalks
that bobbed in light
breezes. Bobbing
in light I plied
the dry sea
of stalks laden
with capsules ready
to split. I pried
each pod apart
let the seeds
drop into a brown
coffee filter
instead of earth
where they hoped
to become their late
blooming selves.
I hoped for
late blooming
myself, carried my own
vision inside
folded brown paper—
hallucinatory fields
of sage and seathrift,
trumpets and landfall.
Veronica Kornberg is a poet from Northern California. Recipient of the Morton Marcus Poetry Prize, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals, including RHINO, Indiana Review, New Ohio Review, Plume Poetry, Rattle, On the Seawall, Salamander, Menacing Hedge, The Shore, and Spillway. She is a Peer Reviewer for Whale Road Review. Website: veronicakornberg.com
Return to January 2023 Edition
Sleek and fat
they hunkered
in the ribs
of their husk canoes.
In hulls they
floated
woozy on brown stalks
that bobbed in light
breezes. Bobbing
in light I plied
the dry sea
of stalks laden
with capsules ready
to split. I pried
each pod apart
let the seeds
drop into a brown
coffee filter
instead of earth
where they hoped
to become their late
blooming selves.
I hoped for
late blooming
myself, carried my own
vision inside
folded brown paper—
hallucinatory fields
of sage and seathrift,
trumpets and landfall.
Veronica Kornberg is a poet from Northern California. Recipient of the Morton Marcus Poetry Prize, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals, including RHINO, Indiana Review, New Ohio Review, Plume Poetry, Rattle, On the Seawall, Salamander, Menacing Hedge, The Shore, and Spillway. She is a Peer Reviewer for Whale Road Review. Website: veronicakornberg.com
Return to January 2023 Edition