Caitlyn Klum

Gymnasium

My first friend was about the length of our hair

But that wasn’t my first crown of flowers

My first death was about theatrics

Basically, the New York City Ballet

My first boyfriend was about men

Pets, community

Someone’s half-moon gaze trailing me home

Signaled a kind of subconscious

Shared, broken

My first cross-country move was about windows

My interior was a cat for many years

Scaling the edges of the community garden

I want to learn more about rhymes

How they have hands, how they don’t

Caitlyn Klum’s poems appear or are forthcoming in LARB Quarterly, American Chordata, Brink, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers and is currently a doctoral student in English and Literary Arts (Poetry) at the University of Denver.

13