my mind was leaving for California the next day
without prospects for job or roof or bed
just fleeing, having had enough
of whatever it was I was looking for but not finding in Seattle
when, in a flash, I was at a dinner party
with 2 women, then 6 women, a whole cabal of women
with little cone hats and a cake, some bubbly, and later
someone had to walk me home in reverse, I’d lost my way
and my shirt had come undone
and there was a kiss, chaste, and I shut the door
afraid of more
Risa Denenberg lives on the Olympic peninsula in Washington State. She is a moderator at The Gazebo, an online poetry workshop; reads poetry for the American Journal of Nursing; and is a co-founding editor at Headmistress Press, an independent publisher of books of poetry by lesbians. Risa's most recent books are In My Exam Room (The Lives You Touch Publications, 2014) and blinded by clouds (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2014).
