Kat Payne Ware

Kat Payne Ware



Sonnet With(out) Cocaine

Sometimes I dream about parties and wake
with my t-shirt slick to my body like a second
chance. The shirt is white; the sheets are white.
Neither of them are the white of snow.
Instead they are a white which happens
almost unbearably, and contains everything,
including the smell of lavender detergent.

Sometimes I dream about parties and wake
just as a ten pound note curls in on itself.
I stretch an arm across the sheets to find
a cool body, breathing through a clear nose.
Behind the curtains it is snowing in the dark
imperceptibly, like a mist, and not settling.




KAT PAYNE WARE (she/her) is a queer poet and essayist, and the founding editor of SPOONFEED, an online literary food magazine. Her debut pamphlet of poetry, THE LIVE ALBUM, was published with Broken Sleep Books in July 2021.