Kates

Caitlyn Klum

POETRY

Kate recently I’d rather be dead or a doll 

I think me too     me too dead or a doll 

Kate should I cut my hair

Cut it    me I look like a boat anyway

Kate how do we get out     the door is locked 

You have to press down like you want something

Kate

My name is Kate too 

Kate did you get a new shirt    new coat

I need to look like a dishrag at all times 

Kate I’ll be famous

But Kate you don’t even know what you’ll look like

Kate   what do blue eyes feel like 

Cold spoons

Kate   what does it feel like to be the person with blue eyes

How do we pass the time 

Help me get my arm inside this jacket

Did you break them     was that string loose before

Kate what if I broke the wings 

You’ll never live in a house with brightwhite curtains     will you 

Kate what does your mom say

O that song she sings shaking her head      knitting a hat for next winter

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CAITLYN KLUM (she/her) has poems appearing or forthcoming in LARB Quarterly, American Chordata, Ugly Duckling Presse’s Second Factory, and others. A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers, she is currently a doctoral student in the Department of English and Literary Arts at the University of Denver.

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