Katie Naughton
warming ending what it may you persist
dawn is not mine day still breaks yellow
outline the windowsill springs my room
my preparations the things your postcard thaws
careful failing provisions the worn song
the country morning whether it runs cold
the river swelled the fat April drops
express of clouds to ground already over
-turned ready earth in wide ribs
I wait warm season for you
some morning through that screen bright
air in time I try to end to trail my fingers
(the frozen pond the geese announce but where
are you )
what to make of it but run late at night
when all the heat is earthed the sun
the other side of the world past dark fields
widest skies and night vision the red low
barn holed through with weather my body then
my body and yours night in the field there
of growing trees where I left me against you
in the wind through the summer leaves in the dark
how I leave in my sneakers leaving home
running after a family a teenage feeling
I left was left became older
I became you became family and you
in a house in a field lit at night
left a remainder of me
from "The Hearing of Moths"
the city doesn’t come off us
not in waves like heat diffusing
in the irregular air around us
me I know
money
second-hand
dressed lunchtimes
a shining wall
always heard
caught smooth
in the throat
the sounds themselves
partake of light
through deep water
sun the deeper
water the nearer
the glass world
built of air
in melting ice
the lemonade
in the weft of thick
cotton
summer money’s
season
the daylight will
the weather of the water
the air turns
hot
poor
careful
dust
blooms
and what is mine?
some things I came by
take some space
full and blank
people
drawn from
circumstance
by
sun
this is the moment
of crisis
this is
the crisis
//
money
could be had
by making
it
in a city
of one kind
hand made
money
I
join
some world its
seamed promise
(not ?)
at odds
the woods
the edge of
suburban
sub-
developments
some houses
banks
rivers and buildings
equals
not
equivalent
I
make
work
Katie Naughton is a poet living in Buffalo, NY, where she is a student in the Poetics program at SUNY - Buffalo. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Colorado State University. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Michigan Quarterly Review, Jubilat, Reality Beach, Third Coast, Opon, Flag + Void, and elsewhere. She is the publicity editor for Essay Press.