Risa Denenberg

Still Life with Moving Parts

I collect koans.
The human body made of seawater.
The sea made of saltwater.
How salt can deaden a lake, or rim a glass.
How turning back turned a woman into salt.
The shoreline where tides shift the sand.
How glass is made of sand.
The tidewaters that wave in syncopated rhythms.
The silence between breakers.
The heart that all its life only rests between beats.
The moments in-between when there is doubt.
How I fall and rise to fall and rise again.
The diastole of my heart and of the sea.

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