Amanda Bogatka Amanda Bogatka

Amity over Amnesty

Red rapids and scarlet magic

Run me ragged

Wishes?

absentmindedly granted.

Touch and taste, in your embrace

I’m surrounded

by white escape.

You said

I’m not going anywhere.

You are my priority.

I will not abandon you,

baby girl.

How

How could I ask

For more of a thrill?

Sweet on me,

Sweet on you,

Try as I might,

No sight of that familiar blue.

Tender caress

Moonlit sighs

You and I?

We’ll find our compromise.

Gentle caress,

subtle hairs on your chest

in your arms,

I somehow forget the rest.

Sundays like Tim McGraw,

morning song

whispered

in wholesome solitude

To you, I’m nowhere near small

Thoughtful gestures

Over worn out measures

Would it be too cliche,

to call you a treasure?

Simple delights, homecoming nights

the longest stretch

Maybe one day,

You’ll teach our boys catch?

Amity,

over amnesty.

In you,

I choose trust, fearlessly.

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Amanda Bogatka Amanda Bogatka

Pausing, Discerning, Unearthing

Pausing

Discerning

Unearthing

Insecurities winning

As the room keeps spinning

No

No

Not for long.

You’re not like him.

You’re not her.

With you,

my trust need not quiver.

Homestead?

Homecoming.

How hardly

I remember anything troubling.

Lilac frames

Sweet absence of games

My spring escape,

Earning my touch

And demanding my gaze.

Homestead eyes

And homecoming highs

Country corners

Remain nearby.

You said

Want to come to the post office,

With me?

Homestead eyes

My homecoming prize

Not a moment

left to criticize

Pausing

Discerning

Unearthing

Intentions?

No longer self-serving.

No longer unnerving.

Only kind

Only reinforcing.

Is this what it means

to just be?

Oh, baby

I’ve already committed

this moment

to memory.

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Amanda Bogatka Amanda Bogatka

Idle Weights & Lucid States.

I put on my camera earrings today

As if that alone,

Were enough.

I promised myself

I would at least try.

yet here I am, 11:54 am — sitting idly by.

What good is knowing you can,

when one false move, makes it hard to stand?

Idle breaths

linger

in my weighted chest.

pulses unpaced,

lost

in the inescapable race.

Paces ahead, lightyears behind,

if only they knew…

just how much

it occupies my mind.

One foot, no two?

I’m unsure — wrong! — what more I can do.

There is no summit. There is no summit. There is no summit.

Most days, this rings true.

But today, anxiety-fueled procrastination

leaves me woefully unfulfilled,

and restlessly blue.

I trust I am exactly where I’m meant to be.

I put on my camera earrings today,

as if that were enough.

If I just keep going,

maybe one day

I’ll believe I’m enough?

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Amanda Bogatka Amanda Bogatka

Respite

Apricot glow

Violet in your eyes

White nostalgia

Laying dormant in my mind.

A transparent giggle

A private smile

I think I believe you.

When you say you’ll stick around

…awhile

More than alright, with only a left turn,

In your goodbye,

I can taste your return.

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Amanda Bogatka Amanda Bogatka

Homestead Eyes

And we’ll stay here awhile,

Til just you and I fall asleep

You won’t know until you go,

you won’t know until you go,

you won’t know until you go.

Homestead eyes,

a curious smile

Sailor’s touch,

No sign of a crutch.

Pulses thready,

almost hot, almost heavy.

A near miss,

turned copacetic kiss.

I didn’t know I could surrender like this.

Is this what they mean, when they say,

“I didn’t know it could feel like this?”

Hardworking.

Rustic ease,

a gentle motion,

this is feeling the fear,

without blowing it out of proportion.

Flying, sighing,

Curled up in your corner,

With you, something tells me I won’t have to look over my shoulder.

A lotus intact,

only seconds, inches from warmer.

Soft lips,

and tepid hands,

slip of the tongue,

I couldn’t withstand.

Safe.

Forehead kisses

and butterfly wishes,

please,

don’t be another one

of my near misses.

Kind.

Panting, chanting,

I remind myself,

there’s no more “can’t-ing”

You could take care of me.

Homestead eyes,

a curious smile,

maybe, just maybe,

you’ll be the one to stick around a while.

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