William Taylor Jr.

 

The Only Time God Exists

There’s that thing in your eyes
I catch now and then
that says we’re broken
in the same way
and these days the only time god
exists is when we’re finally
drunk enough to kiss.
Your laughter in the dark
like a city on fire
a riot at the end of the world
like escaping through barbed wire
back into the sun
burning with the righteous
fury of the damned.
It makes me want to write love poems
now that it’s too late for love poems
because that’s the only time they’re real.

____________

William Taylor Jr. lives and writes in San Francisco. He is the author of numerous books of poetry, and a volume of fiction. His work has been published widely in literary journals, including Rattle, The New York Quarterly, and The Chiron Review. He was a recipient of the 2013 Kathy Acker Award, and edited Cocky Moon: Selected Poems of Jack Micheline (Zeitgeist Press, 2014). Pretty Things to Say, (Six Ft. Swells Press, 2020) is his latest collection of poetry. A new collection is forthcoming from Roadside Press in 2023.