National Poetry Month Day 29: Taylor Johnson

 

 

 

8th & Ingraham 

I forget about money watching the clouds over 8th and Ingraham. The clouds a rhubarb-colored ship in the sky. To my right it all grays out, the bats emerging now from the chimneys. The bats listening for the cicadas’ echo. Echo is a way to create space, is a metaphor for time. Time for the cop to move along I think watching the cop watch me from my porch. Fuck 12. The robin on the wirevine the wireeye competing with the bats for cicadas. The robin competing reds with the sky. The sky a money for the cicadas: a way to make space, time. The cicadas sounding out the future through repetition. A friend says to spend nothing is to keep flexibility in your hands, to keep your youth. Money the sound of decay. Money the repetition of waste.

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Taylor Johnson is from Washington, DC. Their poems appear in The Baffler, Indiana Review, Scalawag, and the Paris Review. They've received fellowships from Cave Canem and the Conversation Literary Festival, among other organizations. Their first book, Inheritance, will be published in fall 2020 with Alice James Books. Taylor lives in southern Louisiana where they listen.

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