A Walk to Remember
It is 5 pm and you have just reapplied your lipstick.
Wherever you are headed is sexy
Because you are sexy and headed there.
There’s a phrase from a smart novel stuck in your head
And your hair is cut so recently you want to suck
On the perfect clean ends like a lollipop from the bank.
At home you have a child and a husband
Who dislikes candy but will gladly lick
You. He has been yours since the beginning of time
And vice versa. You have been your own
Since even longer and this is how you know
How alive you look in lipstick
And how easy it is for you to explain
The meaning of a word without glancing at a dictionary.
The sun slices the evening into two-thirds heaven
And one-third heaven saved for later.
It is September. The summer lovers are weeping
But you are just gaining steam. Just yesterday
You saw your own tan thigh in the lamplight
And cursed with pride. The heat is the type you want
Not the type you shirk because in September
Everything is as sexy as a terminal Mandy Moore,
Impossibly gorgeous and slated to die.I wrote this poem while sitting in the Vermont version of a “traffic jam”: a tractor had spilled all of its wrapped round bales in the road, and no one could pass until they all got cleaned up (this took around 25 minutes). I somehow couldn’t find a notebook, so this poem was drafted in my Notes app, which is something I never do. Which leads me to:
Things That People Expect Me To Be Good At That I Am Really, Really Not Good At
Writing poems in my Notes App
Coming up with lines of poetry while farming
Just writing poems on the go, in general
Crossword puzzles
Wordle
Knowing American idioms
Hiking
Skiing
Bananagrams
Scrabble
Rapping (just kidding, I’m awesome at rapping)
Non-literary content: If you’d like to sneak a peak at my farm, family, and current #1 focus (crowdfunding so we can finish our new herb-drying barn), check out this video that just came out:
Thanks for considering donating to this dream-come-true barn project. We’ll swig something boozy together within its walls the next time you’re here to visit.
Love,
your friend Taylor
A Walk to Remember