At the Clinic

Katrina Kaye

There is eagerness
in the quiver of your knee.

I feel the rattle
of muscle to bones,
a rougher metal.

I reach for your thigh
as kind as bitch to cub,
hold you still
and our eyes meet.

Caught off guard you
waken from trance.
Come back to me.

You smile.

I take my hand away,
but you catch it with
quick fingers. You say
you are not scared,

but I know well the
carved edges of waiting
room walls and how fake
wood on office doors peels
around the edges.

I’ve been counting the
tiny dots on ceiling tile
for my whole life
just waiting for it to
fall in on me and now
I bring you here,

lover, friend, child.
I am more frightened
than I have ever been.

“At the Clinic” is previously published in To Anyone Who Has Ever Loved a Writer (2014).

Apple

Katrina Kaye

Finger paint on belly:
draw your future there,
hazel eyes,
rimmed with green.

Draw the moon
we can make love under,
draw the apple ripe
on the limb.
Actualize need and temptation
in the form of careful tokens.

Wrap layers tight,
so I can’t feel the freeze
you leave about me,

so clumsy steps
against hardwood and
broken window panes
don’t conquer
like they once did.

Instead,
hold fast to my skin.

Roll up in my hair,
finger stray locks
removing the dirt of the day
with tentative strokes.

Be gentle in your word play,
patient in this mislaid speech.

My body hungers at times;
my soul, so desperate,
for the sting and slap of inconceivable future.

Hand – here.
Colors dancing from your fingertips
onto the pale flesh of belly.

“Apple” is previously published in September (2014) and one other anthology which I do not remember.

Katrina Kaye

I’ve always
been a sucker
for a kicked dog,

always eager to defend
the bruised and beaten.
I am not afraid
when your true face
creeps out after dark;

I have no fear of your ghosts
and how they cling to every bone
peaking through skin.
I am not the image
your eyes reflect.

I know you do not love me.
It doesn’t matter.
I can champion your weight.
I can stitch together skin.

You are not the first
damaged man I strapped
to my back.
I have more strength
than you know.

“Damaged” is previously published in Spillwords (2022).