Spill the Ink

Poetry Prompt: Animal Guides

/ Katrina Kaye

This morning I saw a coyote and two roadrunners on my morning run, and since I am not one to deny fate, it seemed like a good spark for writing.

For today’s prompt: What animals are appearing to you today? What might they symbolize? What message might they carry? Why do you think they appeared to you? Try to look beyond the animals you see daily (pets, ants, etc), and see what unexpected creature may appear.

7

/ Katrina Kaye

Katrina Kaye

it has been
seven years
since last
we touched

the final
flakes of body
that remembered
are rubbed clean

i am reborn

but there is
residual substance
in the circuitry
of mind
left over, sticky, and
lingering

a clue
clinging
to cobwebs

as clean as
body may be
it is no match
for the grip
of memory

despite the
warmth of skin,
muscle, heartbeat,
breath, and blood,
there is a chill
that sinks
to bone

“7” is previously published in Saturday’s Sirens (2021).

Forever

/ Katrina Kaye

Katrina Kaye

The lies have always
come easy. A candy coated
vibration between tongue and tooth.

But the promise of forever
sparse slips between lips;

sweet slander,
rarely invoked.

That truth came early and often,
at least to anyone paying attention
to the shift of sun across sky,

the bloom of flower toward dawn,
or the ceaseless shedding of skin cells.

The flux of uncertainty,
measured only by the assurance of change
leaves hands grasping for stone monuments
and brick buildings, as if holding on to
a hardier composition can create a sense
of stability.

As though one may convince
themselves there is no impermanence at all,

but we have all witnessed
the easy break and eventual mend of bone.
We have regularly watched the shift of clouds
constructing and destructing across sky.

I have never been one to count
my syllables, or consider the validity of each
statement that cusses from mouth,

but forever is one lie
I will forever
resist.

“Forever” is previously published on Saturday’s Sirens (2023).