Father

Katrina Kaye

Allow a streak of light
from single bulb hallway
to lay across the floor.

Remind me, in this mild action,
there are heroes in the world,
not every action is based on
the selfish hunger of men.

On nights like this
the rocks of the world
lay heavy on my spine,
pinning me to an earth
I have no desire to inherit.

Let me hear the voices
down the hall. The influx
in cadence regardless of meaning,
the occasional laugh.

I am again
five years old asleep in
a stranger’s house feeling
no desire to resume the
party but comforted to know
it continues.

Leave the door cracked,
just enough, so I’ll know
when the house rings silent,
when the hall light finally dims
that I am completely alone.

“Father” is previously published in Chariot Press (2022). Talon (2022), and Greatest City Diary (2022).

Returns

Katrina Kaye

I come back
the way ghosts do,

silent,

in the night,

when you are alone and can’t still
your mind.

Despite the passage of a thousand days
and the countries that grew between us,

I slip between sheets,

a million tiny insects over brown skin,

and hum Amazing Grace beside your ear
in a tempo too slow for you to recognize.

Did you know:

I never abandoned you
even if you couldn’t feel
my warmth pressed
to your side?

Your eyes may not have glimpsed me as
I hid in the threads of last winter’s overcoat,

or while I merely sulked beside
you over morning coffee,
but surely the scent of peppermint
hinted that I was near.

I return
into the backdrop of your eyelids

silent,

in the night,

where death cannot keep
me from you.

“Returns” is previously published in Brickplight (2021).

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).