Katrina Harms

how can i speak
while
in the face of
...

Cradled
Precariously, still
In cotton dunes of blankets
Cold and shadowed in their undulations
...

My restless heart,
creeping from its cavity
to the silent corridors of predawn-
A crackled white bulb of moon
...

Oh beloved,
have you washed yourself of me?
And if so, how then to know
if these longings must abide in dream only?
...

Halfwife

Unfinished business
The only thing keeping me
...

She has feathered her nest
with things found and forgotten
unwanted scraps and trappings of every kind
From garage sale to garbage dump,
...

Oft I have written
Oft I have listened
for that secret wish
within my soul-
...

Je suis désolé-
Je suis désolé que je ne puisse pas vous sauver
Tous ces temps vous m'avez aidé, me faites mal, m'avez aimé,
vous êtes moqués de moi.
...

Flowers appear on the earth
where sullen gravestones once dwelled
and no fear will follow you here,
where we've lain in deer beds
...

a woman falls on the street

Skin browned to coppery tobacco
doeskin leather
...

I will look upon you-
too smooth skin
like stone bearing gems beneath
I came to you uncleanly
...

i'm eight years old again
trying to memorize times tables
waiting for rain puddles
only now
...

my friend doesn’t know how I love her so
when I watch her
timidly
when she smiles
...

if i were beautiful
i would tell you
what you mean to me
...

garage sale
teeshirts
i like how they're
sweated through
...

hold on now
it’s just a song, it won’t last
not like love not like love
not like this song in my head
...

evening weaves its way into me-
cold and indifferent to me, i dream
longingly of that sweet-hot-honey-summer night
in south carolina
...

this one time

i played piano in front of
a whole bunch
...

what are we?
it’s complicated
no
it’s actually very
...

when you smile
you have lots of teeth
and i feel my face
red
...