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When You Saw Me by Gordon Taylor

By League of Canadian Poets | February 8, 2023

Poem title: When You Saw Me
Poet name: Gordon Taylor
Poem: We sat in our silver Volkswagen
discussing us, on a windy day
by the lake with the wipers on,
spray slapping windshield, glass

clearing and closing like minds.
Should we build a new fortress
of driftwood, watch a procession
of sighing waves, grey

scarves bound to each other
or just go home? We spent this
last-ditch afternoon, summoning
an answer in our bed, limbs

tangling and making, backs sweat
sheened, chest hair matted, mouths
joined in frustration. Afterward you
slept. I imagined your dream—

falling underwater— a whitewash
when you looked up at sun
hitting the surface—underside
of a reflection— a new way

of seeing. I smoothed your shoulder.
Your left foot flapped against
the sheet— a dull grey bass
on a dock, drowning in air.
End of poem.
Credits and bio: Copyright © Gordon Taylor
Gordon Taylor (he/him) is a queer poet who walks an ever-swaying wire of technology, health care and poetry. His poems have appeared in or are forthcoming in Grain, Rattle, Event, Banshee, Descant and Plenitude. In his spare time Gordon is a volunteer reader for Five South Magazine.

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