by Katherine West
March 2021
The birds are singing
and it isn't snowing
We have our vaccines
and schools are open
It is warm enough to sit outside
but too cool for forest fires
In sunny spots brown grasses are turning green
from the inside out
The cat hasn't shed her winter down
still sits on my lap for warmth
She is my most intimate companion
on this March afternoon in 2021
I have survived the shipwreck
that tossed me up on this desert island
on this alien planet
this solitary confinement
for a crime
I didn't commit
And although Spring is coming
I'm cold
I could be old and all
my relationships memories
I could be dead
and all my lovers ghosts
sitting on the side of my bed
that empty symbol of sleep
and love
that flag
that empty symbol of unity
at half mast
Half the time
the ghosts hold my cold
hands in their cold hands
whispering platitudes
like therapists
over the phone
like friends
on a screen
They cannot hold me
They cannot hold me down
as I drift like old smoke
old scarves
as I fray
unravel
silk skeins
cool
weightless
slim
as threads
of red sunset
resting like raptors
on the updraft
like strands
of blood
lovely
and unloved
Katherine West lives in Southwest New Mexico, near Silver City. She has written three collections of poetry: The Bone Train, Scimitar Dreams, and Riddle, as well as one novel, Lion Tamer. Her poetry has appeared in journals such as Writing in a Woman's Voice, Lalitamba, Bombay Gin, The New Verse News, Tanka Journal, Splash!, Eucalypt, and Southwest Word Fiesta. The New Verse News nominated her poem "And Then the Sky" for a Pushcart Prize in 2019. In addition she has had poetry appear as part of art exhibitions at the Light Art Space gallery in Silver City, New Mexico and at the Windsor Museum in Windsor, Colorado. Using the name Kit West, Katherine's new novel, When Night Comes, A Christmas Carol Revisited has just been released, and a selection of poetry entitled Raising the Sparks will come out in March of 2021, both published by Breaking Rules Publishing. She is presently at work on the sequel to When Night Comes. It is called Slave, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Revisited. She is also an artist.