relentless

when i turn the lights down i let life glitter and fade like the tail end of a comet. the lungs fill up. a lonely dog howls. the words turn into images and bridge to another life. when I dream it's relentless.

#katyamills

the life

i drank the poison 

telling all the pained faces 

like the starling takes the wind when the storm comes

let it try to take 

the life

#katyamills

fall back

played time 

one Sunday morning in November 

slapped the thief back 

hand of the clock

sixty more minutes to 

fall back to 

write the finest

verse  

#katyamills

the lesser known

The sky turned red from blue
we saw the sun and knew
sanity had flown

what followed was the lesser known

as the darkness grew

#katyamills

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

cry

 

i won't cry 

unless you cry 

sectioned off under the lights. another stage

black tights and vests with shiny buttons

midnight blue

boots laced up 

awaiting your direction 

heaving chest of breath

inflection

in opposition to certain

death

#katyamills

2.27.23

i saw a mom hug her kid
not wanting to let go


a bird in a tree
cheerful with #incomplete song


i saw a runaway
making a break for it


2 dobermans overlooking a wall
sniffing out the commotion


life is like a sentence. unedited
unblemished


running on and on
and on

#katyamills

co.nun.drum

keep working and you can work your way into and out of the conundrum we call life 

#katyamills

one one four. lost

walmart. 8am. a man in the parking lot sells tamales out of the trunk of his car under a green and red striped umbrella. neither of us won the mega millions last night. soon I am #lost in the aisles in my thoughts.  

#katyamills

ascension

life in all its sprawling nonsense 

and sincerity one moment full of the awful 

and thoughtless the next colored by some 

remarkable act of selfless ascension

#katyamills

commission

god is an artist

the commission has no deadline

drawing us in 

and out

brushing over us all

with fresh

oils

#katyamills

deep cut no.2

life like 

a switchblade 

it can be used 

against you

#katyamills

run over

weightless the body

in flight. carbon monoxide 

swell of heat 

spun up so light the strange 

sound of brakes so late

they cheat 

staring down they 

fall in the winter off the 

wall of metal

sheets 

 #katyamills

i deny i

like they do you could 

too live behind the lie 

deny. do you not feel cherished? 

do not live dishonorably

this is no way 

2 live  #katyamills

back 2 back

i had my same old prayers and back to back they matched the breath

sunrise and
sunset

same old prayers and all the bullshit in between we must attend for such

is life
is life
is life

por favor

please. do not become tired of life. work it hard and that's a lot. someone always gives up. let them. giving in makes not giving in stand out. what once was commonplace is super rare and meaningful. 

response to a letter

Uncle Ramon, dear man,

You describe the mood swings of our lives so well. Life wants me around now, I can hardly believe it. It's not so hard hanging on...the lows are not so low, but the work never seems to end. But it's good work. It's useful work using me. And I like it. Depression no longer has me in a stranglehold. I cannot be bullied into submission. I won the fight this time. But I know each new day is another round. K

fashion a life

life wore us

in and not out

we had answers 

to questions

asked many years

before

all was repeated

the obvious
restated

and feel sure
about

ourselves

life wore us
out

in and
out

may 17

when you have someone who means the world to you and you are related by blood and you have no history of ever doing one another harm, you have about the best thing going in this life. be grateful. reach out to them if you can. talk to them.

go on without

I'm not certain why it's so hard for me to be around people, I guess I may be sensitive. There aren't just unfriendly ones. There are ignorant ones. Mean ones...

Yet the hardest kind of all are the ones who you fall in love with, the ones who you treasure, the ones who you cannot go on, without.