Katherine

23 Jun 2019

This Side of Nowhere 2 of 3

I’d spent the entire funeral avoiding her and now her incestual hands were around my mother. Standing with a plate of baked-from-scratch cinnamon rolls, Kara rubbed my mom’s back as she cried.  The picture of poise, her blonde hair hung in a loose waves f...

Katherine

18 Jun 2019

This Side of Nowhere, 1 of 3

The red light glared at me.  I glared back.   A faded blue sedan squeaked into the gas station on the corner, engine rattling as it parked.  It shut off, the intersection quiet again.  A man stepped out, limp-swaggered inside.  The door’s bell chime was c...

Katherine

16 May 2019

Bones

Few things live In this garden of  Thirsting flowers   Petals scattered  Like headstones Among cracked, Disintegrated  Stems Shattered skeletons Of tree branches  Lying on powdered dirt   Dogs may tear every limb Time may desecrate it all   But warmth bea...

Katherine

16 Apr 2019

Innocent

The photographers’ shadows stretched toward her across the dying front lawn like fingers in the fading hours of daylight.  All cameras pointed at their house.   Leah let the blinds go with a metallic clack.  Turning away, she raked her fingers through her...

Katherine

31 Mar 2019

Roll the Die 2 of 2

Roxanne touched her lips as she stared into the bedroom mirror.  It was as if the ghost of his kiss lingered through the nights between their dates.  Each time he held back.  Each time she pressed him harder.  Talked dirtier.   How long am I supposed to b...

Katherine

31 Mar 2019

Roll the Die 1 of 2

The girl was gone. Rolling the plastic die in the crook of his hand, Jesse’s gaze rested on the cocoa skinned beauty tending bar in Roxanne’s absence. Her deltoids flexed as she shook the ice and liquid in the shaker. She uncapped it to pour the watermelo...

Katherine

17 Mar 2019

The Vineyard

It was in the massive white walls, track lighting, and spotless, glittering objects of Williams Sonoma that Henri’s world stopped.    His eyes had caught on a crystal sconce perfect for the cozy, romantic eating area in the wine cellar of his family’s bed...

Katherine

28 Feb 2019

Shadow

Two more months. She sank into the old leather couch.  Soothing piano notes floated from her little speaker onto the stale air’s unclaimed molecules, lifting the dim house’s oppression.  Turning, she brushed back the flimsy curtains to let the light in, o...

Katherine

26 Aug 2018

Lips

When you dam your words From my ear Do they surf upon dust motes Dead leaves and exhaust  Sunshine and humidity And eke through  cracks in windows and doors To present themselves to my skin Do I absorb them Like a dying woman  Does water Are they the reas...

Katherine

14 May 2018

Fishhooks

Blind  Bound I survive in noise And knowledge That you live in the ether Beside me,  That I do not Suffer alone.    But her voice, Fragile as eggshells, Gifts devotion, Adoration, Through the fraying seams Holding our world in place.  Her scent  Peels bac...

Katherine

20 Jan 2018

No Mercy

Tonight is the night.  It has to be.  Anticipation drew in her soul tight. Celeste stared through the statue’s eyes at the crumbling red brick below.  Spanish moss clumped at her cracked toes, early morning fog saturating what she could see of the air in...

Katherine

24 Aug 2017

Armor

Can’t tell you I love you Though your voice lives in my bonesYour words upon my breastsYour touch, forever lingeringThe days I drank of you,Rebuilt upon your breathLive now in reflections,Mosaics of memoryBuried in the abyss That used to be me.I drape my...

Katherine

9 Aug 2017

Moments

There are times I feel adriftNot quite alive,Not groundedNot feeling much of anythingThen you reach outA textA callA touchAnd I exist again,In the curl of your smileAnd my answering grinMaybe we ground each other,In this swirling, blurring world,With a lo...

Katherine

15 Oct 2016

Strength

Crystal blue eyes. The type that on another girl could look dramatic or vulnerable. Even soul piercing. But squinted by a smile too small for her boxy face and caked with a thick rim of black makeup, she appeared exactly how she really was: trying too har...

Katherine

2 Apr 2016

Fire at Dawn II

The dream was over, crashing and burning with dawn. Nothing should’ve stopped them. The gate should’ve been open. Under the mask the housekeeper had given her, she’d only gone to the party to observe, to experience a night in this foreign country. It hadn...