Writing and Research

Mind the silicon dust; this section is a construction zone.

Articles via Medium

I wrote this response to family psychologist John Rosemond's article about he refuses to high-five children and anyone else he doesn't consider a peer.

This piece was quite possibly the cataclysm for my current study of authoritarianism and authoritarian parenting, but I didn't know it at the time. The pervasiveness connection between authoritarian parenting and authoritarianism as a whole is really a fascinating field of study and I hope to be writing more on the topic soon.

Poetry

This content will likely be migrated onto another page, but for now enjoy a few pieces of my poetry.

"Capricorn"

I turn 30 in January.

I have

     four gray hairs

     one very long wrinkle

     a body that was never young

I have

     antidepressants

     heart meds

     pain

People tell me to savor my youth.
What youth?

But turning 30 is better than turning 20.
I know

     my limits

     my pain

     myself

Turning 30 is better than turning 20.
I am not

     so serious

     so broken

     so tired

Turning 30 is better than turning 20.
I cannot take my own hand,
Scared of everything,
Alone,
And say, "It will be okay,
You'll

     find out why it hurts so much

     have so much laughter in yoru life

     go through hell and come out the other side

     come out the other side
And it'll all be okay."

People tell me Capricorn women age backwards.
I do not know yet,
Just as I do not yet know

     my purpose

     why people like soup

     if the nightmares will stop
But I do know

Turning 30 is better than turning 20.


"Maps"

There’s something about your back

The angles of it

In the thin gray light

That invites my hand

To run the topography

Your back is the most elusive

I mapped your geography

A vivid internal rendering

Then when I encounter you

I know just where to kiss

Because I kissed there before

But your back

Your delicious back

It evades my cartography

Your contortionist ways

Never the same planes

I don’t mind

I make my home

In the curve of your spine

Against the crest of your chest

Along the furrow of your brow

Delighting in the views

I sometimes say

I have lived so many terrible places

Scattered to the wind

Contained in a shoebox

I can live anywhere

 

But I choose 

To make my home with you

In the elusive angles of your back


©2023 Kathleen Kirk, All right reserved.