All We’ve Simply Thrown Away
Outside it’s just
screams and sirens
and people waiting to be paid
inside we peel paint
from the walls in flakes
as if there might be some new
magic underneath
the wine does what it can
but this sadness in our blood
is older than time
our damage shines best
in these smallest hours
and this is the beauty I want to remember
it suddenly strikes me
so many lives could be made
from all we’ve simply
thrown away
as we cross our hearts and make a pact
to stay beautiful until the dawn
when the sun will come and
burn us off like fog.
The Dead and the Living Alike
Last night they found a woman
stuffed in a suitcase drifting
in the San Francisco bay
I listen to news reports
and ponder the underlying
terror of life
how it comes crashing like a wave
pouring through the cracks
of our pretty dreams
when we least expect
and I understand
this is how it ends up
for all of us
more or less
I understand
that I too am a woman
stuffed in a suitcase and thrown
to indifferent waters
maybe it hasn’t
happened yet or maybe
I don’t remember
but the fact of it is there
and I guess that’s why
we have god
and television
narcotics
and drink
and some days
I am frightened of the dead
and the living alike
the enormity of the sky
and the purity of its blue
strikes a fear in me
as I walk beneath it weeping
for things I don’t understand
A Certain Light
It’s true, these days lack
an abundance of mercy;
the indifference of the sun,
the cruelty of mirrors.
But love we are young enough
in the gaze of eternity
and alive enough
in the eyes of graveyards.
In a certain light we may yet
be mistaken for beauty
and on such nights
the collective sorrow of the years
reflected in your eyes
still makes me swoon
like a drunken child.
William Taylor Jr.
