Risa Denenberg
the night we tossed your ashes
mingled with rose petals
into the whitecaps at Cherry Grove
can you see us
standing at the eastern edge
of sand at midnight
and the others, your friends
stampeding into waves
at high tide butt-naked
calling to me
come in come in come in
because of you
I have ebbed
into a bystander
the rest of my days
without buoyancy or grace
Risa Denenberg is the author of the poetry collections Whirlwind @ Lesbos (Headmistress Press, 2016), In My Exam Room (The Lives You Touch Publications, 2014), blinded by clouds (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2014), Mean Distance from the Sun (Aldrich Press, 2013), and What We Owe Each Other (The Lives You Touch Publications, 2013). Denenberg lives a quiet life in a place of stunning beauty on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state and earns her keep as a nurse practitioner. She is a co-founder and editor at Headmistress Press, a publisher of lesbian poetry.
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