Addressing the Loss--By Maralee Gerke--United States

Addressing the Loss

I haven’t crossed her name
out of my address book
my heart stops me.

She is recently gone.
Her birthday this month
leaves me orphaned.

She is ash now.
Buried with my dad on a hill.
Severed connections flap
like tatters in October wind.

Someday maybe, I’ll
be able to erase her
from my book
but never from my heart.

Maralee Gerke lives and writes in Madras, Oregon. She is and avid reader and gardener. She describes herself as a work in progress. Her poems have been published in Calyx, Exit Thirteen, Moonset, Bathtub Gin, Anthology, Nerve Cowboy, Avocet, and Tigers Eye. She has published two books of poems and has had poetry and prose accepted in several anthologies. Her work can be seen online at Shadow Poetry, Long Story Short, and Moontown Café. She recently recorded 4 poems for the Oregon Poetic Voices Project. They can be heard at oregonpoeticvoices.org One of her poems “Refuge”, was recently selected to be printed as a limited edition broadside by the Penland School of Crafts.