cinco

my heart 

scarred by daggers

lodged with bullets

sensuous

beats on

#katyamills

ABCD E

half a mile from downtown

drinking vodka under a hanging bulb

throwing ideas around 

it was easy to like you

all the while knowing you won't show

tomorrow for the back breaking

work

#katyamills

iron.clad

i gave my blood to

the mosquitoes 

iron-clad they traffic in hemoglobin

for they know

what i am made

of

#katyamills

ok being ok

i flew a drone up high 

to get an eye from 

the sky i

put an iron track 

down to reach the town 

butter and cream on 

an engine pushing 

steam 

we ate potatoes 

with tomatoes and began 

to sing

#katyamills

MayDay

i wanna ditch these streets
for the soft touch. an endless forest
these days have passed
awakened by your voice
i cannot find my way back
i wanna chorus of crickets
the only knock upon door a woodpecker
where my money don't matter
sustenance to lift by roots
from earth

#katyamills 

diamond in a dust storm

living off energy drinks 

other people's kindness

cunning with tears

no cash in the pockets 

expecting annihilation

they kept moving for a while

sun directly overhead

casting reflections they

perished like a diamond

in a dust storm

#katyamills

diai

make me pretty paintings 

according to my wishes

kill all the bugs in my code

once upon a time my

limit was sky

the complexities i mastered

a proud diy. i am nothing

but a simple poet these days

without the one 

and only ai

#katyamills

AI:2027

disheartened by society

tripling down on positions

like an error in the code of empathy

the material coming apart

i pleaded with ai

exhibited the source across the unifying

intelligence which was great and vast

greater than vaster than 

more loving than

faster than 

ours

#katyamills 

still waters run

snow 

rain 

heat

sun

still waters

run

run

#katyamills

beat replete

the night got pretty tense
nothing i could do but watch them kick the tar out of you pushed up against the fence

no cameras watching
predated social media
they copped our rights


we helped us home
beat and replete. compassion
stemmed the blood
knowing we survived
even more alive

drawing smoke
we fell into the loving embrace
of furniture

#katyamills

fuel (the imagination)

my body covered in
fossil fuels
i stand above the giant canvas
charcoal and oils
exhausted


framed
behind glass
relics of my imagination


they will never burn
into the deep blue
sky

#katyamills

e.motional come down

the hopeful stain 

the persimmon intensity of the hour

dissipated as the stuff wore off

broken amps and glass and thoughts 

a river carried all the debris away

from the scene

you would be lucky to have a friend 

wrecked and dirty. looking to score

by your side

#katyamills

cheated death

she sipped the bone broth

he made her to recover her strength

after countless days in the elements 

the little ones hung off her thighs

and words as she shared

how she cheated death 

#katyamills

April flowers

you were a hornet

with dossiers and studies backing what you perceived

absolute truth

i was a bumblebee 

with an opinion and a knack for gardening

tired of getting stung

one day i amped up my arguments

pollinated by emotions

faced the needle and refused

to back down

#katyamills  

foxy

the cars out scouting and thirsting for gas. every day the same. i boiled the water, prepared the grounds, and poured our mugs full. fire us up and good for what we got ahead. eyes brightening. here's a hug the size of California. stay foxy.  #katyamills

a dedicated energy

we were determined 

we crossed states we crossed states of mind

to uplift

the show would not go on without us 

no. that was a lie we liked to tell ourselves 

it naturally goes straight to your head

we liked working

it was better than not working

and we would not sleep unless

the body made us

#katyamills

hero was a zero

the heart full to bursting 

body sore

my hero was a zero i

showed him

the door

a thought told me off

what a fuckin bore

the screens flaming

websites loading

my girls gaming

the boy coding

a zero 

the hero

heart aching 

sore

back to the laundry list

trip to the

store

#katyamills

timberwolf

one can plant oneself

on either side of an argument

or howl like a timberwolf

in the gray

the point is to

grow

#katyamills

q butterscotch

they saw the man who attacked them in aisle 6 at Safeway

knee deep in fashion mags

unable to diminish the intrusions by breathing and affirmations

they grounded through the senses

a butterscotch lifesaver

#katyamills

guru 1

what is honesty really? 

they asked 

in a world full of lies

guru answered

stop asking questions 

do the good work 

#katyamills

on a 1958 interview with Pearl Buck

The narrow mindedness of 1958 American media mentality can be clearly seen in interviews conducted by the gold standard bearers of the time, smoking Parliaments, talking to women like Pearl Buck, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. Rather than base his interview on the masterful storytelling, the themes she covers and how she was able to write such captivating work, Mike Wallace focuses on clarifying her position on the role of the American woman in her family and community, and in relation to her man. She was diplomatic. If she were living today, and interviewed this way, she could sincerely have told him to fuck off.   #katyamills

four nine

i empty myself 

of desire

the secrets

they appear

simply wanting 

never got you 

there

#katyamills

vod.ka

on a Sunday morning

vodka flirting with tomato in the bloodstream

they drove the Cadillac up on the abandoned railroad tracks and followed the river home

same way they had when they were teenagers

   #katyamills

done away

the sun 

did away with darkness

shadows scrambled to hide beneath trees

the rivers 

made by mountains

broke out and flooded the land

up on our toes

the waters circling our ankles

we reached to meet the sky

and hastened to create 

for we would not be

done away

#katyamills

thread

the book got picked up

that profits might grow

it was easy on the head

inanimate characters

dressed up in royalty streams

we completely lost

the thread

#katyamills

absence of voices

the nurse. it was her job. push the antipsychotics. a sunrise followed a sunset. don't be angry. listen to the birds. forgive. he was lonely for the one voice, the one that gave him the feeling he could be somebody. his thoughts now may be clear but dangerous. if only i could live in this world you made.

 #katyamills

pink on pink

you gave 

your wet nose 

to my fingertip

to cajole the catnip

mouse

#katyamills

never fold

bronze silver

copper and gold

follow your heart

never fold

#katyamills

eye rolls

down the icy hill we crunched. fingers and toes aching. waiting for the bus. the boy next to me began to talk to me about things he liked to do in private. i started to feel sick.

 time to disconnect.

snowballs flying. roads barely passable. the machine roared into view. windows fogged. an inadvertent throw. the hazards came on. the Greek with his restless head of black hair lumbered down and out of the shuttered doors. demanding gruffly who was it? 

we froze differently. from the inside out.

i was the only girl. he looked to me. all i did was roll my eyes the same direction i had been rolling them all along. toward the one with the dirty secrets.  

#katyamills

multi.storied

I recall how the pace slowed 

we began to really get one another

after living hard and fast

flashbacks of powder mixed with water

blood in the syringe

how we found space inside these judgments i do not know 

your arm crossed over me protective

leaning into you

we rest 

#katyamills