las vegas 2025 impressions

Here in Las Vegas sense can jump out of you the berry of your cigarette burning your lip brings you back feel around your pockets for your wallet (if you even) find it it's empty ... play Keno with the same numbers until you win. you cannot survive fascism if money is everything. if you do not speak up you lose. you cannot see if you are lost on your phone. do something for anyone ... after the rains the desert air is good on the lungs and one holiday morning we are walking between casinos so alive hunting for coffee when an old man in a yellow tracksuit on a scooter slices a path between a man and two women on the sidewalk to a chorus of fuck yous ... hey sky and trace clouds! hey sun! come on up this final Friday of the year played out ... you don't need to struggle anymore. if you can, just be with someone you love and who loves you. have breakfast in bed... take the longest drive home.  

#katyamills

publication

My story was published today by Juan De Crivelo

here ...

 https://latinosenglishedition.wordpress.com/2025/12/22/you-were-i-was-by-katya-mills/

#katyamills

18

the chambers

reeked of pine sol and plastic 

a humble veneer 

distorted egos 

foundation of fear 

many stood and applauded 

the legislation 

out of touch with 

the nation 

tired parents 

try 2 comfort 

nonbinary 

kids 

one day 

if you don't end your life 

you will turn 

eighteen

#katyamills

apprehension

in this foggy dreariness

we do recall the bright bright sunny

with hopes for its

return






the forecast ...

marine layer

cold to the bone

rain






we put our hearts together

and map out a week

in the desert






a ten hour drive




no more waiting

go and apprehend your

dream






#katyamills

crystallize

an SOS signal

flashed from a spotlight beaming 

across the unsettled surface of the lake

the memory crystallized into a value 

firing up the powerboat 

and heading out to help 

the ones stranded 

in the channel

#katyamills

Portland Oregon

 a short story I wrote ... 

https://latinosenglishedition.wordpress.com/2025/11/19/portland-oregon-by-katya-mills/

11.9.25

I wanted to share a couple of posts I wrote on X and BLUESKY in the past couple of weeks. I am currently focused on other writing projects taking me away from short form. 

Vitamin K

@Katya444ever
·
Oct 28


another #experiment gone awry ... she falls to her knees and rips at her coat ... her zombies limp out from the shadows to console her ... suddenly her eyes open wide in revelation ... what if I give you sunlight? #vss365


when they came up from the maelstrom the ones who had given up on any sign of life were ashamed or did not believe. when they set eyes upon them they saw they were mostly unchanged but for one brushstroke ... their hair once black now silver the irises #argent too

November. your dying was near it was hovering. your spirit pulling away then back into the body #geography flickering and fading. my eyes swim in tears. the love comes quick and you will not be forgotten. #vss365

10.23.25

the lad was downcast watching the oatmeal drip off a sugary spoon. heavy in some story he told himself. she caught his eye. look! my nail polish. isn't it radiant? the counter story began to take ... can we go to the park? I want to feed the ducks.

10.22.25

wednesday. autumn settles into the bones. I want to be helpful be useful and make you smile and laugh. not so crass and cynically fuming. patience. one thing they cannot take from you is your effort. channel it wisely. brush off the cobwebs. wear yellow. its almost halloween.

ghost train 2025

 

  

by Katya Mills

one

October 

of fallen apples 

bored by worms

 green 

and reddish 

moon

orchards the color

of dying

soon

a locomotive 

emerged from a mist

hauling rusted boxcars

through town

unmarked

like a tombstone 

slate

telling nothing

of a poor man’s

fate

the earth 

trembled 

the spider

clutching 

its web

she rumbled down the rails

across the cemetery grounds

raising bodies from eternal slumber

racking her bones

along the factory 

row

dusty faded

brick and mortar

façades

trailed by packs

of snaggle-tooth

hounds

sparking her irons

with arduous

howls

i came to consciousness

in my bed

the only light

 the wood eating 

flames

the tall windows

holding back

torrential

rains

absorbing

her engine steam

smoke-white

grains

a chilling shrill whistle

dropped to baritone

then bass

drew me out 

treacherously

nonsensically

        to the streets

in my overcoat

shivering

i watched her

go by

the crossings

deferential

somehow

like an invitation

how silent 

the bells 

painted gates 

wide open

red lights

dormant

suddenly 

i felt myself

 edging some 

precipice

one gasp

and

i had taken

my last

my body 

sheet white

fell limp 

in the dirt

snagged like a 

vagabond 

neck ina

noose

i grasped 

these iron rungs

in the wind

with heaving

lungs

oh ghost train

what terrors 

you hold

framing the landscape

in burning 

cold

oh scarecrow

what terrors you seen

hung up 

in cornfields

where the murders

been

someone

please

will you?

light a candle

for the lost

to find their way

through the frost

toll a bell

for the ones

left behind

antifash

 she took a drag so long to the lungs it made good enough ash to cover up and smudge the memory out on early morning city streets with her brothers and sisters white brown black. young. restless. angry. thirsting for a better world. irreverent. antifash 

poetry by #katyamills

come up

the blur of memory laughing with friends antagonized by the enemy falling into low vibration energy we isolate the problem only to discover it's not us we look up to the stars and polish our eyes with our fists tracing the scars on our wrists we come up 

#katyamills

9.23.25

there were subtle signs concealed cash flows influencer click bait they even tipped the faith productions with promise of stained glass cathedrals what we knew to be catastrophe they designated a beautiful day in history. #katyamills

per.haps

perhaps the light inside you can be channeled 2 dissipate the various hells perhaps the best days are ahead the pain will inform gratitude perhaps the kids born today will love paperbacks and the benevolent ones when they die watch over us.     #katyamills

September

they beat us up

broke us down 

took our dignity 

we went home 

tails between legs 

to mommas tearful 

embrace 

reinvigorated 

by love and 

kindness

#katyamills

syn

 oh synthesis of light and dark chocolate stirred with coffee softness layered stark. satin finish of the skies conflict in the heart the touch and then depart with bittersweet goodbyes

#katyamills

style no.1

they broke down. out of petrol. it was an old car with no sensors. fuck this useless fuel gauge let's go. they grabbed their backpacks and walked the highway. no panic. they had a style you just don't see much anymore

'lemon' by Katya Mills

a poem I wrote was published here ...

 https://latinosenglishedition.wordpress.com/2025/09/09/lemon-by-katya-mills/

monstera

 semi-conscious 

sore and fatigued waking

nonsensical dreams 

i got going 

when a friend in Albuquerque 

messaged she named her potted Thai 

Constellation Monstera 

after me

#katyamills

composer

in a small room obscured from view beneath the ash and maple with birds nest speckled eggs iron and blue the idiocy of the world to momentarily elude they locked in with longing and finished the etude

#katyamills

bad trade

these days

the trick is not to trade 

your sentient ways 

into your mobile 

phone 

leaving you 

listless 

numb and 

alone

#katyamills

euphoria

 

she took a train 

from mundane 

thoughts packed full 

with aspiration 

outside the gps 

thumbprint 

she wrote and wrote 

with elation 

downing hot cheetos 

with coke she 

signaled from 

her station 

unleashing creative 

energies ... 

connection ... 

euphoria

‪Katya Mills‬ ‪@katya444ever.bsky.social‬

· 3d

true story

how
audacious
of you


not the reckless
cutting into my lane

the lug nuts on the massive wheel
ripping into
my flank


but after
having somehow
kept my head from panic
and tracked you


your first words
are not are you okay?
but 'not my
fault'


so sad


#katyamills

semblance of a plan

she was determined not to end like her friend. the one who sold her lungs at auction in a state of abject capitalism for an all paid month in Hawaii (prior to debt coming due). she got a Gen Z to hack the encrypted lock on her faucet. stole the hens eggs. made a plan. 

#katyamills

good spider good

a good spider 

i once knew 

caught me 

in his web 

being broke down 

having nowhere else 

to turn i

did not fight i

let him enter 

no one else wanted me 

the poisons 

made me blissful 

numb such that all 

my woes 

died 

good spider 

wrap me in 

thread

#katyamills

8.7 blackout

 the first time we took brownies cooked with Johnny's butter was in Chicago during a blackout. the whole city went dark for over 24 hours. complete summer power outage. 1999. candles and flashlights and fires. no cell phones. we got high - internally lit.

#katyamills

charm

 they got behind his charm. by then they was traveling 100km an hour inside his corvette. he had lit a Marlboro and when they asked him not 2 he blew smoke in their face. sometimes it is best 2 forsake the body and exit a moving car. 

#katyamills

recycle it

 we pulled into the lot giant blue bags full of cans piled higher than the scale shack '5 minutes we close' we separated glass & aluminum from plastic filled the bins quick dragged them 2 cash out. a Tahoe showed up '2 late we closed' the man with a scowl burned rubber

#katyamills

Don't Take the Poison by Katya Mills

Short Story

' Don't Take the Poison '

by Katya Mills

here: 

https://latinosenglishedition.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/dont-take-the-poison-by-katya-mills/

turn off

the hum 

drum 

of political bs 

on fox cnn

 tmz 

and the 

like 

made u 

wanna exit 

the earth 

it was easier 

to just turn 

the shit 

off

by

#katyamills

inquire

honest
troubling and
blue


she was
elusive


one had
and had not
and had


a crew
struck out at sea
to capture


for glory
bound


then
drowned


translucent
four thousand fathoms
down


forever 2
inquire


sapphire
sapphire




by #katyamills

happenstance #4252

a half grain 

of morphine
got him up 

walking around
curious 4 whatever comes
after body 

dies



he heated coffee
on the stove



a nest of hatched sparrows
precariously stitched
above the door



emboldened by
the happenstance
he got affable
with telemarketers





#katyamills

promise

my love

you need not promise 

just keep it to yourself 

and when its time 

be there

7.20.25

 they got you off the streets

the endless excitement of love and danger

you approached us

courageously

kisses between the eyes

you know something you

learned out there

defenseless

spiritual