Lori Noto
I go to the banks that once knew you
as a body that moved and watch
cold still the water’s rippling.
Often, I find myself wanting
to be the river,
to freeze with a little spring
left somewhere within the depths of me
before your voice disappears
into the wind’s howl for good.
Nothing ever comes back
from the dead,
but sometimes I think about it.
I have to think about it.
To believe one day I will find
a marigold with the roots of you,
keeps the winter from driving
the two of us deeper into the ground.
It’s the only thing.
***
Lori Noto is an amateur poet from the Southeastern Wisconsin area. Previously a disillusioned business major, Noto began pursuing an academic career in English Education at UW-Green Bay in 2016. Since she has garnered enough courage to share her writing, she has had five poems published in Sheepshead Review. In Spring of 2017, 2018, and 2019 she was the winner of the Rising Phoenix Award for poetry, given out by UW-Green Bay. She also has been published in Burnt Pine Magazine and High Shelf Press.