Cat's Tongue

Cat’s Tongue is the latest publication from California-based writer Kathleen Winter. These poems vary widely in style and subject matter, but they share precisely crafted language and this writer’s unique perspective.<BR>from “Each Day a New Round of Sadness” <BR>Islands of the Hawaiian archipelago are connected<BR>to each other under the surface of the sea.<BR>Under the surface of the sea something roils<BR>like a volcano preparing to explode.<BR>To explode sometimes suggests a solution<BR>to the situation of constraint, ubiquitous<BR>as fear these days, when stasis is a prize.<BR>A prize, that is, compared to illness.<BR>Can’t wellness sink its teeth deep into me<BR>to feel acutely as a wound?<BR>A wound is what the dream delivers<BR>with an image of my mother<BR>wreathed in Hawaiian flowers—<BR>tuberose releasing its cloying<BR>daylong ennui.