Magazine Covers by David M.Taylor

When I was thirteen
I loved a girl
who wore three earrings
in each ear.

She lived in a group home
up the street
and was friends with my sister.

They'd listen to music
and dance around our house,
pretending they were on magazine covers,
that their lives were something more.

One day she kissed me
like the people in music videos
and I finally felt her pain,
the kind that comes
from trying to hold smoke.

I wanted to say something
but didn’t have the words.

I remember her every time
an 80s song plays on the radio
and try to remember that moment,
but it’s like trying to hold on to smoke.

David M. Taylor teaches at a community college in St. Louis, MO. His work has appeared in various magazines such as Albany Poets, Misfit Magazine, Rat's Ass Review, and Trailer Park Quarterly. He was also a finalist for the 2017 Annie Menebroker Poetry Award and has four poetry chapbooks, the most recent of which is Growing up Black.