KateLin Carsrud
Kitty Baby
Kitty baby,
Marbled.
I traded an older
Version of you
So I could have
You, younger.
Can I also
Trade myself?
Katie baby,
Striped.
I’d like a
Do-over.
Take me back
To twenty-two
Years ago, when my
Skin was fresh.
Let me try
Again. Maybe this time
I’ll cut
Smaller.
Marbled.
I traded an older
Version of you
So I could have
You, younger.
Can I also
Trade myself?
Katie baby,
Striped.
I’d like a
Do-over.
Take me back
To twenty-two
Years ago, when my
Skin was fresh.
Let me try
Again. Maybe this time
I’ll cut
Smaller.
KateLin Carsrud is a graduate student in the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her work has appeared in Baltimore-based literary magazine JMMW, Medicine and Meaning, and Equinox, where she was awarded the 2019 David Jauss Prize for Fiction. Her poetry has appeared in The Closed Eye Open, and she has forthcoming poetry in Nine Cloud Journal. Lastly, she has art published in the sex-positive magazine Throats to the Sky.