wicked shrubbery

sprouts above our eyes

coiled and wild

like our hearts

the lush supercilium

shields our blessed sockets

maintaining our Calliope vision

Yet you ask me to 

inspect

trim

cultivate 

the hairs

for we cannot spend

all of our days in the garden

I raise the tweezers

unshaken

my young hands

steady

I tidy Baba’s eyebrows

into obedient rows

I know we must hide

our she-wolf selves

to survive

Vera Sirota is a poet, freelance writer and teacher. She was a NYC public school teacher and teaching artist specializing in writing instruction. She wrote her master’s thesis about using photography as a writing tool for English Language Learners. Vera was raised in a bilingual and bicultural home as the granddaughter of Ukrainian immigrants. Vera serves as a mentor for Girls Write Now, NYC’s premier creative writing organization for high school girls and gender-expansive youth. She is a finalist for The Poetry Barn’s 2022 Poetic License contest. Vera’s poems are forthcoming in the anthology: Ukrainian American Poets Respond.