*

Nina Rubinstein Alonso’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Nixes Mate, Sumac, New Boston Review, Broadkill Review, Writing in a Woman’s Voice, etc. Her book This Body was published by David Godine Press, her chapbook Riot Wake by Cervena Barva Press, and her story collection Distractions En Route is being published by Ibbetson Street.

Nina Rubinstein Alonso

At Good Harbor Beach, Gloucester

Cool sunny day on
Good Harbor Beach
with Kathleen

friends for
how many years
comparing notes

about our exes
drifting apart then
reconnecting

our photo taken
near the memorial for
fishermen lost at sea

saving this moment
feeling time pull while
he goes swimming

though too cold for me
plop on the sand reading my book
watch her paddling along

as the wind picks up
pondering parallels about
change and sameness

dinner at a seaside place
love’s silent breeze
splashing bright waves

even now that I’m
somewhere else wandering
another beach.

— Nina Rubinstein Alonso