Katrina Kaye

The woman I was is desperate

to find conciliation with the woman I will be.

We come together inside aging skin

and seek a stretch of days to cradle and

consolidate all that cannot be forfeit

before opening to all that is to come.

I am not yet finished.

I must create the new out of fragments of what was,

exchange the innocent for the seasoned.

The skin, once raw,

have felt the heat of summer days.

The trivial mixed with the essential

and all the slippery spots in between

seek a union, a compromise,

a new form, eager and able to embrace

all that is to come.

What once was green

is now ripened red.

“In Between” is previously published in Introspection Quarterly (2022).