Muse

Katrina Kaye

She returns as shards
of glass in heel
hindering escape.

She takes the breath
from my mouth
and blows it back
in my face.

She makes my
eyes sting.

She whittled words
into my skin
and left me there
to scratch at the scabs
till they scarred
in the shape of tin can,
brown boots, bad luck,

a promise made and then
unwoven like a web
on a cracked window.

I am not sorry
I took her home
that first night.

The way she
enveloped every
part of me,
the way she
recklessed through
my unconscious

filling the empty
inside my chest,
rekindling a spark
that had long
gone to ash.

I know now,
despite the years
since I have felt
fed and full,
she stayed close
waiting for the time
when I was brave
enough to call on
her again.

Forever

Katrina Kaye

Forever might last
only a matter of seconds
in the right hands.

It might last a night
of shadow and fog and
a chill in the air.

Forever is the five years
we spent pushing and
pulling together.

From the moment you found
your place at my side
to the last night you laid beside me.

So heavy, so still.
The weight of the world
pinning you to mattress.

The rise and fall of your body
a tender reminder
that this is forever.

And I am afraid of forever,
the commitment to sun and earth,
the permanence of it;

the way it does not negotiate
or offer resolve.
The curse of continuance.

Forever we hold our flags,
white and half mast
howling to a moon

that ceases to be despite how
we know it will forever
be there.

“Forever” is previously published by The Wild Word (2024).

White Gardenias

Katrina Kaye

Gardenia petals
tossed off the balcony,
only to be crushed
under the heels of black boots.

One more opportunity
to show the difference
between white and ruin,
and yet when the bomb drops
we find ourselves
creeping toward windows
in hopes of a better view
to ease the curiosity
panting on our tongues.

The hunger is obscene,
but I no longer crave the sugar
I used to savor.

Curled into myself,
I feel no anger or madness,
just the repeated pitter patter
of the drops from window;
a constant reminder
that on this side of the world
mold consumes in darkness.

“Post Euphoria” is previously published in Fevers of the Mind (2022) and Otherwise Engaged (2022).