“Venus Comb” by Kristin Berger, published in Earthwork, released in August 2022, by The Poetry Box Select, has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize.
Please enjoy the poem, and feel free to leave a comment.
Venus Comb
All the women I know are done twisting
themselves inside out: applying eye cream,
adjusting the mirror, covering the gray,
hiding chins in tipped-up selfies.
The small moons of their ovaries
might send out one more egg,
a pilotless explorer.
They are done watching for blood.
From a softened center, vertebrae
like antennae, they listen for the scuttle
of years hoping to sit next to them,
quietly, like a rumor, like beauty.