“Proceeding” by Gordon Taylor
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Proceeding” by Gordon Taylor.
Proceeding
By Gordon Taylor
in an alternate history of the world
you are not an epic boy
under a sapphire sky
still in moon’s late pull
not limp in crimson-soaked shirt
bound to a fence
shadow staining gold wheat
wind whispering to a lingering deer
your small details forever
rendered large
in an alternate history of the world
we are not generations of fire
hot as beehives
hot as shame
crimson strobes bouncing from queered brows
bloodying bare chests as confetti floats
shrapnel to a dance-floor
in an alternate history of the world
we are not oars pivoting in a lock
palms blistered from the long row
waiting to be capsized
a shore of orange bracken breeze-ruffles
a ruby wedding ring flashes like police cars
and shimmering drag artists in mid-air
lip synch with the Supreme Court
in an alternate history of the world
you, Matthew, sighing ghost
a groom in a tuxedo sewn of lilacs
float above centuries of guests
in a massive rowboat bobbing
through sequined river waves
you are not an epic boy
bound to morning
in moon’s late pull
Copyright © Gordon Taylor
Gordon Taylor is a queer, emerging poet who walks an ever-swaying wire of technology and poetry. A 2022 Pushcart Prize nominee, his poems have appeared in Narrative, Malahat Review, Poet Lore, Arc, and more. He writes to invite people into a world they may not have seen.
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