Katrina Kaye

In search of
my purpose,
I wander the house.

As though spying
on a discarded lover,
I peek the sunset
around the curtains:

the glimpse of
lavender and orange hues
reflect off the bottom
of untouched clouds.

I forget what I am looking for.

Instead of continuing
a search, I sit still and
enjoy a deep breath,
precious and deliberate,

unlike so many
I take for granted.

“A Short Ode to Breath” is previously published in New Croton Review (2025).

Katrina Kaye

Our hunger was
never so animal
as it was on
the Cold Moon,
never so bloody
as the first
of the month.

We salivated;

the slick of the bone,
the cut of tooth
on tenderloin.

Counted pulse beats
and tick of time,
dripped words
like weapons.

In a hurry,
panting and
pacing, a dog,
not of war,
but of conquest,
of revolution.

By winter we
didn’t have enough
meat on our bones
to gnaw against our gums.

We never really
learned how
to survive
off of more than
each other,

to scavenge feathers
falling soundless,
the ruffle of the lost.

It was our isolation
that buried white teeth
deep in the earth.

“Wild” is previously published in Marrow Magazine (2022) and Weasel Press (2022).