Katherine's Coffeehouse

I submitted because I saw ‘defenestration’ in a WWII detective novel, and had to look it up. The same day I discovered a journal of the same name, so I sent the poems in, thinly clad, barely edited, but mine. That’s no joke, but the timing – o timing is a funny belt we loosen […]

Now more than then, #Facebook needs #poetry, and art of the masters and royal ladies who dare to dabble on timelines, old cobblers tearing off the heels of era, sublime restoration of a different kind, the way fragile leather of the unheard moves. Does it not know no one’s really listening? Does it not know […]

This cannot be my America. Where bloated power stuffs rags in the mouths of servants, weakened because some bastards removed their food and means, leaving them to live on charity. Sympathy. This cannot be my America. Where smirking young men mock Veteran elders on t.v. and the image of a crying native elicits no longer […]

If I were a comma, would I opt for Oxford use? Would I find AP an ignorant Yahoo, mucking around in muddied sentences? Or would I merely slide from the tip of a pencil, smooth as poetry, and drop myself quietly before the “and”? Do you understand, now, what keeps me up at night? Not […]

When I look up, I see the wall in front of me, mirrored butterflies my daughter bought me, pressed against sheetrock and paint, covering punctures, the latest fluttering of fun decor and strange introspection. Do you know how it feels to see yourself in butterflies? #KatherinesCoffeehouse

What if this year you held your face in your own, warm hands, and said aloud, “You are shamelessly loved”? Would it make you repaint your bedroom, or file your jagged fingernails, or bang arrogant nails back into the deck, while you laugh like a five-year-old? Why are you crying? It’s just a resolution. #KatherinesCoffeehouse

Someone on Facebook said, “Bless and release.” I penned it on paper, a post-it note, purple, stamped with a teal -infused hummingbird, wings raised like praying hands, bearing my resentment like a god. Thank you. I can breathe now. #KatherinesCoffeehouse

Shifting paper, old handouts, a stack of dog-eared folders, blank, brittle notebooks, pile of unread mail and must-smelling memories, just dressing my desk the way mom did her counters. Must be hereditary. We sure are good at piling. #KatherinesCoffeehouse

1970’s ornaments, smell of pine, plastic, old cardboard, memories of my mom, leaking from the box. #KatherinesCoffeehouse

I was so jealous of you. You were that collectable champagne glass in my mirrored curio – gold-rimmed, slender stemmed, gleaming, overflowing with the stuff of celebration and wide-mouthed laughter, lipstick around the edges, the innocent intoxication of youth and beauty. But oh, so fragile. That’s all of us. RIP. #KatherinesCoffeehouse