what we owe each other
by Risa Denenberg
Table of Contents
Ode to Brevity
Rummaging the Sacristy
Last Rites
I sat by the bed
What we owe each other
The last mourner
Afterlife
At the library
Angels and Pigeons
Alternative Medicine
Last Words
Ascension
Book of the Dead
Dear Solitude
Last Request
Dear Jon
Pain
You lie very still on a narrow cot
where you collect reams of it,
plentiful as a year’s worth of newspapers
tied in bundles, squirreled away
in the basement by a hoarder
who tamps at your body
to stoke its fire.
You stick fingers into eye sockets
as if pain were a vision
you could poke holes into.
No matter how close you slide
towards comfort, it lurks.
You no longer imagine
being devastated by death.
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The Lives You Touch Publications
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