Who cooks well for only herself—
who makes tomato jam & falls out at the taste of a ground cherry.
Trust a woman who can cast a spell on you but doesn’t.
Who studies carpentry, who can work a saw.
Trust a woman who likes soup. Who can clean a fish.
Who you can weep into & still looks you in the eye.
Who says, Miss Baby.
Trust a woman who sweats.
Who is partial to rain & running into the street water heavy.
Who has garden shoes. Who makes pesto.
Trust a woman with reading glasses.
Who eats elderberry and cardamom.
Trust a brilliant woman, who excavates you & says, see? Not so bad.
Trust a woman who wears a robe. Who walks you home.
Trust a woman who naps, who wakes up early.
Who knows a good swimming spot.
Trust a woman who says, you can’t talk to me like that.
Who reads a book and writes in the pages.
Who walks, who bikes, who has a snow shovel.
Trust a woman, I beg you.
Mackenzie Berry is a poet from Louisville, Kentucky. She is the author of the poetry collection Slack Tongue City (Sundress Publications, 2022). Her poetry has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Hobart, and Blood Orange Review, among others. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry from Cornell University, where she has taught. She currently teaches at Tufts University.