Inspiring.

This Burning - William Taylor Jr.

A nameless afternoon

in a small San Francisco

apartment

I strive for poetry

and produce only words

I pace the room

and through the windows I watch

the sad little whores

and their pimps

cracked out ghosts

sitting in shadowed doorways

hiding from the sun

I turn away and

a yellowed death notice clipped from a newspaper

years ago

falls from the pages

of a slim volume of poems

an old jazz man plays through my dirty little speakers

erasing the lines between life and death

nightmares and dreams

and this burning in my chest

this acute desire

is not for death

only for something other 

than what is here.

All We've Simply Thrown Away - William Taylor Jr.

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 dawn

when the sun will come and

burn us off like fog.