by Katherine West
 |
| “Big Lie” by Steve Sack, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune via USA Today, May 15, 2021. |
This is the disease
That does not send us
To the hospital
To die alone
On the other side
of quarantine
Masks
Are ineffective
Vaccines
Nonexistent
No lab can create
Or uncreate it
Herd immunity
unattainable
Contagion
Inevitable
This is a disease
With a seed
Planted in the desert sand
Of which mirrors are made
Fun House
Distortions
Germinating
In the mind
Desperate to love
Itself
It leaps
From loathing
The thing
In the mirror
To adoring
The king
And all the false
Jewels in his crown
To destroying
Any shadow
That falls
Across his perfect
Face
Since perfection
Is contagious
Is the only cure (we believe)
For distortion
For drought
For the desiccated
Heart
For thirst
A thirst
That can't be quenched (we believe)
Where rose and mind bloom
Where pools reflect
The real
Where songbirds
Mate
For life
Returning
To the same
Garden
Year
After year
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.