Kiss

Katrina Kaye

My body reacts to your touch
the way dry caked soil
responds to rain.

Sucking in,
letting you surround me.
Absorbing you
into my cracks to savor.

I am too old for
blood to taint cheeks,
but heat blisters,

an unexpected wave
spreading through entire body.

Beginning with a tickle of facial hair
and moist firm lips,
all senses surrender.

I look at your smile
and wonder how I taste.

“Kiss” is previously published in The Fall of a Sparrow (2014).

Champion

Katrina Kaye

Every night
I save you
in a hundred
different ways.

I say the
right thing;

I turn a
different corner;

I catch you.

Every night,
I bring past
to present and
relive that
last day,

only different.

I take the
gun from your
hand; I answer
the phone.

I listen,
just listen.

Every night
I am there
instead of here.

I stop
it from
happening.

Every night,
in most
precious
imagination,

I become
your champion.

“Champion” is previously published in Rabbits for Luck (2016).

Katrina Kaye

Falling leaves,
red and gold,
scatter around your oak.
The wind holds,
a safe caress,
until your name
sends them hurtling
through the dusk.

I find you.

Perching upon
rotting gravestones,
counting the passing
time in sunshine
and rusting grass.
Patient as the dead.

Decomposing angel,
eyeing moldy lettering,
neatly carved dress
billowing in absent wind.

I wonder how long
to wait before
breaking the stillness
with scattered words,
as inconsequential as
fallen leaves around
the footing of oak trees.

“Angela’s Angel” is previously published in They Don’t Make Memories like that Anymore (2011).