New Mexico

Be Content

/ Katrina Kaye

Katrina Kaye

with sunlight
through kitchen window

the recorded
sounds of violins and wine
from a stemless glass
with a smudge
of lipstick on the rim

be not disappointed
with each gift
you have wrought

in an attempt to surrender
seclude to kitchen table
ask the weight on
shoulders to retire
enjoy a glass of red wine
and much needed solitude
let the music
move from neckline
to fingertips

as it always has
as it always will

understand every offering
at your fingertips
is hard earned
and the loneliness

that too

has been invited

“Be Content” is previously published in The Green Shoe Sanctuary (2022) and the chapbook No Longer Water (2024).

Sun

/ Katrina Kaye

Katrina Kaye

Your world is absent of light.
Dust reflected in rare brightness
only to disappear behind western vista.

Enveloped in gloom,
you watch from thick shadows
the world succumbing to the dim,
you fade in the dusk.

If I promise to follow you into the night,
take your path away from the sun
and wrap myself in your darkness,

will you sit beside me,
fingers interlaced with my own,
and watch the sun rise?

“Sun” is previously published in They Don’t Make Memories Like That Anymore (2011).

Lifeboat

/ Katrina Kaye

Katrina Kaye

The first time,

I held death in the salt water of lung
hopeful to be pulled on raft and have
air pressed into chest.

The second time, I pushed
under the water.

I let go knowing full well there was
no point in waiting for a kind hand.

I will not give anyone the
the satisfaction to mourn my death,

not when I can still
keep head above water.

I may have been made
a fool for carrying crosses,
but I earned them.

They keep me afloat.

and these storms leave
such peace in their wake.

“Lifeboat” is previously published in Chasing Rabbits (2012).