the second recipro.city

how unusual to give the attention 

undivided like an orange like 

a planet like the wheels that drive an engine 

in this our post-industrial society

specialization so refined the mouth 

has no relation to the belly

#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

upcycled blue #2

oh pomegranate 

swollen on the bush dangling

illogical participle

seeds afire like jelly like

wax they almost picked us off 

decisively you stood up

and out like embers like 

fireflies like rain in a spotlight 

modify you modify for days 

and days and

days

#katyamills

like colors we run

we dodged the skin of palms

morning after the storm we

never made it to work. like

strays in the park like 

colors like dreams 

they cannot hold us 

we run free     #katyamills

dim.in.ish

all the ideas they 

had of you could not 

diminish you

#katyamills

gracie the dragon

by the red house

in land park she lies 

made of metal made of tile 

glass and stones

the camelias they wave to her in the breeze 

as she parades at the speed of earths

rotation made of 

love

#katyamills

cru.sade

i had luddite dreams

a crusade to end all screens 

life gives you

little highs and lows 

independent of a mouse 

and a click one pony

trick now power

down

#katyamills

 

back track

saw a man on a broke down 

bicycle asking about his stimulus check

everyone wanted to be his social

worker for a second until he said

he owed back pay on child

support

#katyamills

up from the downtrodden

the blood got up in a good way

to see Moscow pummeled with snowballs

citizens out for Navalny

coming home. will we always be fighting

for answers? the blood 

got up in a good way. up 

from the down

trodden      

#katyamills

post

the N95 particle parade 

inaugurated a post consumer reality

breaking news

the stuff was in the way   

#katyamills

the twenty twenties

our songs of lipstick lead

immunity boosters and covid dread

our voices unpacked with dry ice

banded together in supersites out from 

under masks like mittens made of tires

forklifted from some autoyard in

vermont   #katyamills

dawn #534

dawn broke as i walked to see you

bounce in my step. neon signs spun the fog

into curls how unfortunate you

were not home. dashed my love

drifted. piecemeal. distributed among the forlorn

manic girls party boys and the mangy 

cur      #katyamills

route #9

we cut class we cut

through woods to route 9

sliced the town

in two. we thumbed rides

when you pulled over we

ran off to devil's slide  

a wicked rock to split a senseless head 

you chased us like the cartoons

sabotaged by rockets shot

from coke bottles 

smoking

#katyamills

idc.idc.idc

when whole bodies

trembling and we look dead

in the eyes and the words hit the walls

i don't care

and the walls fall

you know and i know

how badly

we do

#katyamills

base

crushed beneath the base

work and faith became mindless

too. in the era of you 

know who

#katyamills

the lost and spellbound

he comes to you unafraid

dyslexic softly stabbing

wood all day with a

blade

humming

like a bird to feed

plants hanging around

awhile. dripping with smile

Childish. he dips into you

spellbound. a man he

gets his fill and

gone

you

spellbound

#katyamills

world bipolar

time made history we

shred the wheat in the bowl

soak in milk and 

digest. they lie in the mud

sheltered by big red hats

and flags. injustice

never ends. world bipolar we hope we 

retreat then take the stage

more colorful than red

white and blue 

#katyamills

1995 self portrait

mistaken for a German boy

a belly full of phobia they 

didn't even know their own 

pronouns

shy of six feet slapped 

incomplete wasted on whisky

lost in books and city streets

typing mad into the night full

with misgivings fists into bricks

black belt in broken

hearts

#katyamills

sub.sumed

what stitch of light we wore 

in the pitch heart of darkness

sewn with such care and concern

could not be subsumed

made of noon on the 

solstice day 

#katyamills

year of luxury

americans sedated on chocolate and pills

a soft butt of foreign jokes 

life was luxury status 

year 2049. liquid liver soak stations 

phones mobilized to do the chores 

sedentary. racist. relegated to epilogue status 

tweets regurgitated 

4 swallows

#katyamills

2005

i met a space man with a chemist

for a friend. my truck broke down

again. an epic perfectionist i 

made friends on craigslist i could not stand to be the one

you got to know. i was changing 

you left me i howled

when you were gone

#katyamills

shot

he had her in his sights

up on the truss of the tower

bridge she wore the golden

threads the sun could not

contend under a spotless sky

off the paint the winter

morning birds watching he 

posed and shot her

#katyamills

855

the head told you 

you were crazy the heart 

called it out on a lie born 

to live not born to die

#katyamills 

8mm

the heart finally spoke out like cinema
ina condemned theatre
tape rolling through a bell howell
projector dug from an archive. the heart
finally spoke out
the light cast upon the wall
bringing the past to life for
the heart never dies

#katyamills

the atomically compromised

thought you controlled the world your

media constructed myth 

up downloading torrents of permanent denial 

retweeting your favorite tweets glued to the young 

the restless dreaming of another piece of ass wading 

thru your broccoli florets stuck on stupid atomically
compromised goodbye  

#katyamills

in America

nobody thinks alike nobody 

feels the same all 

the time. this is diversity

not subversion

we have shared history 

not carbon copy

if you wanna force someone

to think like you

this country is not 

your home

#katyamills

unified by division

topping charts to Siberia
they cast across Europe the States
legs down south by jeep by boat by
on foot on mood stabilizers on
chromebooks over streams and bit torrents
with under age girls
like some strange new religion unified
by division

#katyamills

the blinking ghosts

we float above stones 

ready to be polished

in then out of view

now we are colorful neither shiny 

absent not faded

not simply a statistic

dreaming to be someone we are

more realistic

#katyamills

city kids

an inside job turned out
a city kid gripped 
with doubt. the infinite details
the mind runs through

some barren fields
smokers heavy in their chains
anti-drug campaigns

DONT WALK        -      run!

she took your hand

in the street you 

knew you were 

loved

#katyamills

daybreak again

some spirit set off the motion 

sensitive lights triggered a memory 

the world had forgotten and you 

never would. they wanted you tough

growing up. had you up early

dressed and out before daybreak 

missteps and tears rarely forgiven 

they had been beaten 

out of them before

you

#katyamills

twenty thirteen

when fentanyl hit the spleen
overdose became mainstream you lost 

friends and legends and the sun still rises

the light wakes you under 

your angel hair cabbage you formulate 

a mission you play with memory you

love and live on

and on

and on

and on

#katyamills