Comparison
My paltry decades of living and I cannot understand how mountains bear their memories. -Katherine Gotthardt
Katherine’s Coffeehouse
ReBirth
And there, amidst the mange, a tranquil tuft of growth, baby-haired, white. The whole world hummed, as if it, too, were new. -Katherine Gotthardt
History of the World
In latter days, the solar- scorched world proved heavy- handed, callous palms swiping back. Retribution. -Katherine Gotthardt
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Cucumber
That garden you decided to plant? How it took time to turn over the soil, get past the sweat, that insistent dust settling on your white sneakers. You cussed. Later you’d take that first bite of cucumber, squirting refreshment from summer rains, several thick slices inviting another serving. It felt a little like happiness.
Art Making
It is Wednesday, and I put my work on pause. I find my old art bag, carry watercolor pencils to Battlefield Park. My leggings pick up hitch hikers, their bristles clinging to me, as if I were a spring tree, and they, leaves. And suddenly, I am six again, wearing fuchsia, new sneakers already muddy.
Remote Work
By Katherine Gotthardt Somewhere in the midst of life’s lessons, I’m forgetting how to speak. I think it might be the COVID solitude, demanding silence and order and discipline, the daily tidying of a cluttered workspace I don’t want anyone to see. Or maybe it’s approaching winter, early morning frost telling us all to hush.
Empathy
By Katherine Gotthardt The turtle has been crushed by a mower, life leaving through cracks in its shattered shell, coagulated, looking like cranberries and minced meat, the poor thing bobbing an intact head trying to look behind itself, as if wondering what could have gone wrong. And I am devastated because I can neither put
Decisions
By Katherine Gotthardt Somewhere, there’s what I should be doing, somewhere between the smudged edges of you and me, between the places where time and things collect, and I become a bit overwrought. I look around this room, this one room, and I am breathless – not because it is beautiful, not with appreciation, not
Trust Me
I tell you trust isn’t something I lend like a new book you know damn well will never be returned. It isn’t something I save on my shelf, waiting to give away. It’s more like a person I don’t want to introduce. You could try to find and kidnap him, but that’s not how trust