Katie Young

Katie Young Feb 2013

In keeping with tradition, stranger,
we will walk past one another and
not say a word.

I’ll glance nervously at converse on the
weedy walk; you’ll distract yourself
a nearby bird.

I’ll never know how you’ll cry alone
between linens tonight because you
realized you feel nothing.

You’ll never know how I pacify myself
with myths and lies just to keep
my composition.

We’ll both be lonely and never know
why. We both will always ache for
something we can’t name.

Katie Young Feb 2013

Two Rams Are We

Two rams are we, you and me.
My hooves were fresh, horns just new.
I sat on your hill, you taught me
everything, your disciple,
your Rip Van Winkle.

Your mouth was wide but
your legs were thin. You said
“I’ll leap across gorges”.
Dad, I believed you,
So sound asleep.

I watched, as you fell into
all the holes, horns chipped, denting.
Hoofs scratched, bending.
Tried, you did, to bound over me,
you broke my back; I even ducked.

Still asleep, barely.
What sort of ram are you?
Gorges don’t come small
enough for a mouth like that.
Found my own hill then, did I.

My broken back is healing now.
I am my own disciple now.
I haven't tried to leap over a gorge
yet, I'm training for the day.
Wide awake.

Katie Young Feb 2013

Red Lipstick

I never thought
I could wear
Red Lipstick
Until I wore
Red Lipstick

Katie Young Feb 2013

I Will Look With Unglazed Eyes

I will look with unglazed eyes
onto this nebulous existence
and I won’t hesitate to cut it
       with a knife, unsympathetic to those
who would hinder or impede me.
They are not my life, I am my life.
I cannot imagine not turning over

every last effulgent piece of
this Earth, and so I will
not leave one drink undrunk,
one feeling unfelt, one sigh
unsighed. I will take what this world has
by force; I am here but once, so do not
     stop me, block me, weather me in,

  it will fail. I am an intransigent
  being, uncompromising in my need,
   unforgiving in my ways, strident in
  my demands. Like a preservative,
   feral mother I won’t let the one
     I love become victim to famishment,
            and I am my child today.

— The End —