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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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