Wednesday 31 May 2023

fence

off my shift. 8am

sleeves rolled up we exchange uplifting words

you thank me for starting a pot of coffee

on my way home sleepy yawning i 

pass a house on MLK

yard littered with wheels and frames

a fence for stolen bikes

this work it keeps me

honest

 


#katyamills

Tuesday 30 May 2023

burners blue

the final day 
in May we shambled to town hall 
cold and nine parts gray
to liberate the coffee from 
the crates and gave it 
all away

Main Street turned blue 
burners on

nothing really to do
but have a cup 
and chase our stories out on a single ray
the final day 
of May



#katyamills

Monday 29 May 2023

green cabbage

it took us all of our years 

to unlock the secrets within 

like green cabbage perfectly cooked

kick up the feet for

life now tastes 

sweet

 

#katyamills

Chinese Camp, CA

dressed in a floral blue
the storekeep at Chinese Camp
she warned us Highway 120 was impassable
due to the mad river


she mapped out a safe passage
we bought an Indian blanket and ice cream
to thank her for her kindness
fed her chickens and goats and headed
south to Mariposa


#katyamills


Sonora, CA

the combination drive and hike wiped us out 

we planned to get up before dawn 

for Yosemite

i popped some tylenol at 3am

told you not to stress

let's sleep in


#katyamills



disappearance

with a face that blocked the entire sun

a voice made of water fallen

she lured you 

up the slippery rocks at her feet

toward the clearing where 

her lofty song thundered 

down


i lashed myself to a beech tree there 

calling yelling shouting

no longer able to see or hear 

so this is how they 

disappear


#katyamills



Merced River



we follow her twisting frothy madness north by Highway 49. roar ascending like a stadium crowd at the south fork. her banks filled to the brim with snow transmuted by the sun and rushing off the peaks. what's left of the wildest winter. our spirits rise to her

#katyamills



Wednesday 24 May 2023

high stakes

i learned by living

to lower the stakes we set so 

high we panic

scared to make a single

mistake...

i learned by living

if you fall it may be bittersweet

for the ground she will

hold you


#katyamills

the one true friend

you

at eleven

was nothing like you 

at fourteen

beyond the years

red with fire and no longer 

green


please 

let me be the one true friend

i refuse to amble along

pretending not

to notice



#katyamills



Saturday 20 May 2023

the licks

in the city of your dreams
scurry the serpentine back road black 
top beauty. an ice cream snowball 
crashes into your knee a
natural painkiller
for all the licks

#katyamills

Friday 19 May 2023

nails

i am taken
flecked with silver and shimmering
hands clasped around your neck
wearing the forever coat of nails
you made me

i wanna kill the ones who made the internet
sometimes. for drawing me away from you 
to careless icy screens

 
#katyamills


the living daylights

out of bars
out of cars
they got kicked
(they got scars)
out of class
been harassed
off of trains
in the head out of bed in the dark
the living daylights extinguished
off and on like an electrical short
some say
they made hard living look
lissome


#katyamills

give a secret to the sky

galaxies 

on our fingertips

we rest in a field

sciatica makes you sigh

a secret falls off the lips

up cycled into

sky


#katyamills


Thursday 18 May 2023

world of uncertainty

sleepy dreaming. sonorous was locked in the body. anarchy in there. i coaxed it out with a mission into this world of uncertainty. a sonic boom. everyone dropped their phones in unison. aware of dead time. exfoliated the cells. once that wore off we were super fierce

#katyamills

Wednesday 17 May 2023

locals

we locals

not casting out very far

wheel around town in a three door car

you know our names and we know yours

stop at the candy store and the bar

for some steady gossip to remedy 

any overthink with a steady

drink


 #katyamills



Tuesday 16 May 2023

wild card

perfection. the dalliance ends now. stop the fuckery. i am with friends i walk with good intent. the weight of age and time the only pain i carry. no longer self-inflicted. my royal flush ends with a wild card. the feeling you get after you lost it all. to live on.   #katyamills

the hour you meet the world

wistful you push us too hard. with some slow burn desire you push us. you push us too hard. you sing this song night and day feverish after what you long for yourself. please. sit back and count the stars. the hour you meet the world. let things be as they are.  #katyamills


what was and ceased to be

they dragged him out to the fields middle of the night and roughed him up good. she woke up alone and wondered why. locked out of the house he somehow managed to climb over the fence. she found him sprawled out in the backyard, shirt torn, under the influence of apricity. 


#katyamills



Monday 15 May 2023

97

at ninety-seven the allure was still living in his own home he built in the fifties with the help of a friend. he fought the knees. they did not want to get him up and standing. he ordered tamales and empanadas by the dozen and gave them away to anyone who helped.    #katyamills

Friday 12 May 2023

bro

languid and still drunk

you took your bottomless coffee

like medicine to ill effect

you could still love bro

sometimes that's how it goes bro

always up on your toes bro

heart broken like the eggs over 

your grand slam special


#katyamills

Thursday 11 May 2023

heart of glass

she had done herself up and sumptuous by nightfall. he watched her drag her glass bottle coke with a straw. he already had her heart but could not know. hidden behind a heavy fortification of eyelash, cool undertones with a touch of cosmic apple blush. #katyamills





boba 15

all we had left besides
blurry screen smudged vision and apocalyptic climate heads 
was the kindness we shared over a smashing boba tea 
in twenty twenty three

#katyamills

may 14

saturday 

you got me a manicure

the color was pretty in pink 

we ate fresh tamales

watched the movie about a hotel in Budapest

and woke up to birdsong

and cats watching 

the nest


#katyamills










#katyamills



may 9

the thoughts were like 

poison mixed into a moscow

mule and killed the hour

you believed 

them 


#katyamills

Tuesday 9 May 2023

b4 u think

broil the salmon 

golden pink

stop the thoughts

before you think

you don't have to feel bad 

about it

anymore


#katyamills


audio of tongues

backstory

flicks off a screen 

replicated churned out 

the machine 

acne and scars 

stitched up in pixels 

strung out like guitars 

mixed at the top of harp-shaped lungs 

sampling the primitive 

audio of tongues 

this is the age 

of ai


#katyamills

Monday 8 May 2023

unfashionably

the zillion cheers Hip Hip
Hooray in the murky gray 
of the UK

super uneasy
reluctant with scepter and orb
out of total fashion
in the year twenty 
twenty three

a new King 
takes the 
crown


#katyamills



Sunday 7 May 2023

night so strange

on hard times

fallen


the days turned strange

maudlin


easily bruised

turning colors 

laughing and jumping

they twitch


as if turned by a switch 

into night


unable to register

any longer

the light 




#katyamills

Friday 5 May 2023

less than likely

we watch the kids
play pinball at the city arcade
selecting broad beans for our coronation
quiche. the lands we lived on
shaped us. it had nothing to do with sex
get the mind out of the gutter
ball. the clothes cling to our body
and the line in the garden
closing the book over the mark 
we go to sleep


#katyamills

Tuesday 2 May 2023

finish

I line my eyelids
with a metal finish
the day begins with words
from an interior 
space. a common life i have
formed by various pressures and forces
lucky with freedom wishing
to be a light to show 
a way out of the darkness
to any lost soul
i line my eyelids
a silver finish



#katyamills


Monday 1 May 2023

your love

is a command

a letter with intent on a flaw finding mission

a plastic screenplay run through ai

generating artificial tears

to torture my wounds

thanks to your love

i love to be 

alone


#katyamills