Your boy once touched me, yes. I knew you knew
when your wet, reddened gaze drilled into me,
groped through my clothes for signs, some residue
of him—some lusciousness of mine that he
had craved, that might have driven his desire
for things perilous, poisonous, out-of-bounds.
Could I have been the beast he rode to war?
The battle mounted in his sleep, the rounds
of ammunition draped like unblown blossoms
round his neck? Could I have somehow flung
myself against the wall of his obsessions,
leaving spells and curses on his tongue?
Your fingers tighten, ready to engage
the delicate hair-trigger of your rage.
To the Mother of a Dead Marine
About the Author
Marilyn L. Taylor, Ph.D., is a former Poet Laureate of the state of Wisconsin and the city of Milwaukee. She taught poetry for the Honors College at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for fifteen years, and is the author of eight poetry collections. Taylor’s poems and essays have also appeared in Poetry, Able Muse, Measure, Light, Raintown Review, and Rhino, among many other well-known journals and anthologies. She was awarded the Margaret Reid Poetry Prize for verse in forms, and has been a finalist for the X.J. Kennedy Parody Contest, the Howard Nemerov Sonnet award, and the 2017 Lascaux Review prize. She teaches regularly at Lawrence University’s Bjorklunden Seminar Center and elsewhere, and serves as a Contributing Editor for two poetry journals (Verse-Virtual and Third Wednesday). Her newest book, titled Outside the Frame: New and Selected Poems, was published by Kelsay Books in December, 2021... Read More
April 2022
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