Barefoot
By Katherine Gotthardt |
Was there ever a time you didn’t judge? Approached a foreign-looking man, shook hands, ignored the sandy feel of his palm against yours, his callous, knotty knuckles irritating your sweet skin smoothed by shea butter and shorter work hours? What did you do? Did you smile for real? Did you try not to stare? Did […]
Apocalypse No
By Katherine Gotthardt |
I’m not cut out for the apocalypse. I’m not built for Armageddon. Sure I’ve got the bulk to survive a random famine, or float around the flood zone, but really, I’m just not the type to die. See, I still believe in possibility, in potential, in humanity. Stupidity on my part? Wishful thinking? I think […]
Centipede
By Katherine Gotthardt |
There, on my office wall, above the lamp and tiny, sterling Buddha, a house centipede, more legs than a marching troop. How they move in unison, soldiers obeying a single brain, beautiful in their complex simplicity. Except…one leg is missing. You have to look closely to see it, the gap in the line, the […]
Work in Progress
By Katherine Gotthardt |
If I charged what I was worth, the world would be poor. That’s not a brag. That’s everyone. Look around. Look and say with certainty, “I see the gold of El Dorado.” It never was a myth. Look! There…there is potential. There…there is talent. There…there is honesty. There…there is the one I thought I lost […]
Housemate
By Katherine Gotthardt |
#GrowingUp, I housed a battered, silent, shriek: “#StopFighting!” It never moved out. #KatherinesCoffeehouse
Amazon Prime
By Katherine Gotthardt |
I should go to bed, bury my ear and head in a pillow of sweet smelling sheets and sleep, maybe Egyptian cotton, or something on sale I bought off #AmazonPrime. Because, see, I spend so much time online, I start to see things like #promos and #discounts and #coupons as #BigData puppies tugging at the […]
Hashtag Lazarus
By Katherine Gotthardt |
On days when #FacebookIsToxic – those are the days to #WritePoetry. Go ahead. #Hashtag the hell out of #inspiration, #art, and #TheCreative. Use whatever #MetaphorWorks. Breathe #life back into a dead thing gone wrong. #Lazarus didn’t rise because #JesusHealedHim. He sat up in a stony tomb, peeled away his gritty bandages, felt the new, smooth […]
Neck
By Katherine Gotthardt |
I’m going to miss my neck. No, I’m not headed to the guillotine, or decapitating myself in some obscene science experiment – though my brother wants to freeze his brain, not by eating ice cream, but trying cryogenics. I’m not into it. But I digress. Last year, I held a funeral for my uterus. It […]
Moving On
By Katherine Gotthardt |
Purple was accidental. I like how it looked on my website. So I started out with a logo, a two-tone purple half-arrow, pointing up towards something, whatever it was for the day. Then I moved on to business cards. And purple brochures. And pens. Hues and tones of purple, blueberry in between, purple scarves, plum […]
Ogni pensiero vola
By Katherine Gotthardt |
*Ogni pensiero vola How many poems love Mondays? Do any of them laud the week’s overlord, strum a bard’s mandolin, raise a tenor tone up towards a stony window where, instead of a maiden with perfumed tresses, leans out an old ogre? “I’m Monday,” the ogre says. “And you are a goofy bard.” He tosses […]