A previous version of this poem was first published on I am not a silent poet in January 2015. This version is included in my pamphlet The Density of Salt (Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2016).

Kitten
 
She would wrap yards of silk around
her Venus de Willendorf form,
and wear her Rhiannon-long
 
swish of auburn like a cloak,
shielding shoulders
from spears and arrows.
 
I was the runt of the litter,
shying away from the diamond
boom of her laughter,
 
and I ran, tumbled
over moss beneath
the weeping willow tree
 
and climbed higher –
circling her head,
refusing to come down.
 
Years passed, I landed on my feet –
a scarred tigress, sweat brining
my hair, a flash of broken teeth

and claws snatching the caramel
song from her throat.

Kitten

My poem 'A love note to the one who came before me', from my chapbook Land and Sea and Turning (CWP Collective Press, 2018). Also published at Street Light Press, 2017 and Eye Flash Poetry's DUST pamphlet (2018).

A love note to the one who came before me

My poem 'Donkeyskin', from my chapbook Losing interest in the sound of petrichor (Black Light Engine Room Press, 2018). First published in Dying Dahlia Review, 2017.

Donkeyskin

My poem 'How to survive the winter' from my chapbook Land and Sea and Turning (CWP Collective Press, 2018). First published in Rust + Moth, 2017.

How to survive the winter

My poem 'For Josephine' from my limited edition chapbook Land and Sea and Turning (CWP Collective Press, 2018). First published in the online journal formercactus.

For Josephine

Solitaire

My mother sits in judgement of a nymph, a saint, and me

On a Thursday-Friday train

An elf in the witch-garden

I write poems, and sometimes I say them out loud.

Writer, mama, and pagan witch with a heart full of rain and rivers, moss and thorns.

Kate Garrett

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