my verse

Stillness

/ Katrina Kaye / 4 Comments

Katrina Kaye

I stay until the clouds
come into your eyes.
Your body too warm
to convince me it is only a shell.

Although a chill has yet
to set into bones,
a placidity envelopes
around you more securely
than my arms ever could.

It is earth shattering;
it is broken rib
sticking its shards into lungs.

If I believed in heaven,
I could accept
you fled to a better place.
If I believed in a god
I could find
comfort knowing you are
at peace.

As it is,
I know only
you’re gone.

There was a time
I wanted to name all the trees
after your kindness.
Count leaves on stretched
fingers to recollect
how many days you
showed me love.

You healed scars
strapped across my spine
and allowed blackened feet
to balance on railroad tracks.
I was invincible
in the reflection of your eyes.

Now I stand alone beside
breakable body,
my finely woven plots
riddled with holes,
drowning in stillness.

“Stillness” is previously published in the collection, my verse…, published by Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC in 2012.

Love and Honey

/ Katrina Kaye / Leave a comment

Katrina Kaye

I have grown tired of dreams,
the way they toss me through the night.

Perhaps there is not enough sugar in my diet.

Holy knows there is not enough caffeine
in a single cup to keep me from flailing.

I have only been hungry once in my life.
I have only turned animal during a solitary full moon.

This life is not what I expected.

There are footprints forming in the absence of warm bodies,
but no flesh covers these sun bleached bones.

I have no fear of the skeletons and the clicking of their heels.

If it is just a matter of hunger, would this heart
and all its dried red fruit be bitter to the taste?

I wonder sometimes about the difference between
love and honey, how only one holds the ability to survive.

“Love and Honey” is previously published in the collection, my verse…, published by Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC in 2012 and Gravel Literary Magazine.

Orange

/ Katrina Kaye / Leave a comment

Katrina Kaye

You told me once,

when you
found me
at two am

sitting cross legged
on linoleum floor,

pulling apart
sections
of an orange
to suck on the slices,

you can’t decide
which part of me

to forge
into a locket
so you can
fold yourself
inside,

held within
for always.

“Orange” is previously published in the collection, my verse…, published by Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC in 2012.