Issue 37: a good egg | by Christina Berke
Have you ever thought about going into business for yourself, the doctor asks while a gloved hand is inside me. She presses my uterus up left up center up right. Her head pops up between my legs...
Welcome to KHÔRA, a dynamic online arts space produced in collaboration with Lidia Yuknavitch’s Corporeal Writing. Visit our Archive to read previous issues. Scroll down if you’d like your work to be considered for future issues.
a good egg by Christina Berke
1.
Am I, or have I ever, had anxiety?My intake form is done on a little tablet fixed to the counter. I’m standing there in front of a receptionist, lashes too thick and long to be real, and I see her looking up each time I read the questions out loud:
Am I depressed, or have I ever experienced depression?
Feel malaise?
Bleed easily?
Sleep through the night?
How regular is my urination cycle?
How many sexual partners have I had?
Is there a history of breast cancer on my paternal mother’s side?Yes or no.
I tap no with my fingertip, but I really don’t know and there is no one to ask.
The chandelier above looks like thick, white sperm feverishly hurrying to the lightbulb egg, to be the chosen one.
2.
The intake nurse has pants too long and a top too tight, quite possibly house slippers or else just extremely fuzzy clogs, which instantly endear her to me.Okay, ma’am, she starts, step on the scale, okay, now I will take your blood pressure, okay do you have an arm preference, do you have any problems, ma’am? You know, she gestures obtusely to her crotch, and whispers, you know...down there?
I say, Clean as a whistle. Want to look?
Read a good egg.
Christina Berke is a Chilean-American writer and educator based in Los Angeles. Her work has been supported by the Sewanee Writers' Conference, Bread Loaf, VONA, Tin House, and she was the Carol Shields Prize Foundation Residency Fellow at Hedgebrook. Christina is working on a memoir, WELL, BODY, an excerpt of which was Longlisted with Disquiet Literary International.
Issue 37 Highlights
We’re thrilled to introduce the newest members of our curated team: writers nawa a.h., Mayur Chauhan, Marina Gross-Hoy, and Michael Nagle; artists Heidi Grace Acuña and Kirk Read; and Featured Writer Christina Berke and Featured Artist Ro Stastny. Check out Issue 37 here, and if you missed our previous issues, visit our Archive.
Issue 37: The Minotaur by Michael Nagle | Artwork by Kirk Read
Issue 37: Stranger Technologies by Marina Gross-Hoy
Issue 37: to buwaya baby by nawa a.h. | Artwork by Heidi Grace Acuña
Issue 37: A Little Bit of Everything by Mayur Chauhan
Issue 37: a good egg by Featured Writer Christina Berke
Issue 37: hive forest by Featured Artist Ro Stastny
Artists and Writers
We’re looking for features! To enter KHÔRA’s collaborative waters:
Team-based, collaborative, and curated, KHÔRA is a form that is continually opening. We invite you to join us in sustaining it together. We don't believe in rejections. KHÔRA’s 500 Words is about considering how multiple voices can be heard; how frameworks, traditions, and projects can inform each other; and how new perspectives emerge from collaboration and openness. If you are a visual artist or interested in sharing your artwork or images, ready about KHÔRA’s Images here.
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With galactic gratitude,
Leigh Hopkins
and the Corporeal/KHÔRA squad