A Map Without Your Shadow

By Kat Heatherington

This collection of poetry charts the arc of a marriage, from the formation of the relationship and building a dreamed-of life together, through cycles and years of emotional abuse, and then into and through divorce and its healing aftermath. It grapples unflinchingly with deception, loss, love, heartbreak, and ultimately finding a path to w

• Language: English
• Publisher: Echobird Press LLC
• Release date: Mar 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9781961370036

Kat Heatherington

Kat Heatherington is a queer ecofeminist poet, artist, pagan, and organic gardener. Kat's work tackles what one friend memorably described as "stunning transitional moments" - the space between feelings - grief, love, heartbreak, and emotional complexity, threaded through a deep relationship with the natural world. She has several self-published poetry chapbooks, and one book, The Bones of This Land, available from the author at [e-mail] and at http://echobirdpress.com. Her work can be read at https://patreon.com/yarrowkat.

Book preview

A Map

Without

Your Shadow

poetry by Kat Heatherington

Copyright © 2024 by Kat Heatherington

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any other means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or recording without prior permission of Kat Heatheriugton unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law.

Address inquiries in permission to:

Echobird Press, echobirdpress.com

ISBN 978-1-931370-02-9 | ISBN 978-1-961370-03-6 EPUB

Table of Contents

compass rose

rock 1

a little questioning 2

the river still runs through us 3

the things we don’t say 4

fall any faster 5

this thousand miles

an apple dipped in honey 7

the wrong light 8

the heat of this night 9

summer tanager 10

uncharted

what has changed 13

love is not enough 14

litter 15

taillights 16

index lines

the scent of shattering 19

untangling 20

the day after i asked for a divorce 22

work i don’t want to do 24

escape 25

taking out the trash 26

the light you left behind, reprise 27

compost 29

off the edge of the map

grief is an enzyme 31

the breaking light 32

aftermath 33

#NotAllTrucks 34

a map without your shadow 35

trees are made to withstand storms 36

the day after 37

the trick 38

a future